An article published in Spine examines functional activity for patients after posterior spinal fusion for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.
The study included 77 patients who underwent surgery January 2010 to April 2012 with an average follow-up time of 12.8 months. The patients were 15 years old on average. Here are five findings from the report:
• Patients were able to return to school full time at 10 weeks postoperatively; the majority were returned by 16 weeks.
• The risk factors delaying return to school were preoperative curves more than 70 degrees, postoperative weight loss more than 5 kg and minor perioperative respiratory complication incidence.
• 51.4 percent of the patients returned to unrestricted physical activity by 24 weeks.
• 88.5 percent of patients were returned to unrestricted physical activity by 52 weeks.
• There were three patients who were not returned to unrestricted physical activity on the final follow-up due to chronic back pain.
"These findings add to the current knowledge base regarding actual versus anticipated timing of return to short-term functional outcomes in this population," reported the study authors. Another study recently published in Spine Deformity found navigation systems can improve outcomes for patients undergoing adolescent scoliosis surgery.
The researchers found perioperative task time took:
• Average tracker placement time: 55 seconds
• Registration time: 94.5 seconds per vertebra
• Screw tract formation: 131.1 seconds on the concave side
• Screw tract formation: 129.5 seconds for the convex side
The average total procedure time was 3.5 hours and overall registration accuracy was 0.7 mm. Pedicle integrity was breached in 1.6 percent trajectories in the navigation group, compared with 5.1 percent in the freehand group.
Finally, among procedures using growing rods for early-onset scoliosis, a study published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery found risk factors for surgical site infection include stainless steel implants, nonambulatory status and the number of revisions before deep SSI was reported.