Study of Congenital Scoliosis / 대한정형외과학회잡지

ABSTRACT

Congenital scoliosis is defined as a lateral curvature of the spine caused by congenital anomalies of the vertebral development. In this study seventeen congenital scoliosis patients seen and treated by either Milwaukee brace or surgical intervention at Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Seoul National University Hospital from December 1972 to April 1978 were evaluated according to frequency of the curve pattern, character of the deformity, method of treatment and its correctability. The following results were obtained in this study. 1. Age distribution was from 2 to 39 years and mean age was 13.4 years. 2. The most common deformity pattern was hemivertebra in 8 cases (47.1%), unilateral unsegmented bar in 4 (23.6%) and mixed type in 3 (17.6%). 3. The most common curve level was thoracic in 6 cases (35.3%), followed by thoracolumbar in 4 (23.5%) and lumbar in 4 (23.5%). 4. The best corrected type by Milwaukee brace was trapezoid vertebra (29.4%) and then mixed type(26.1%), followed by block type (20%) and hemivertebra(2.3%). 5. The operative treatment was performed in the cases of unilateral bar and progressive type with Milwaukee brace. In terms of the correctability of the curvature, the surgical intervention was better than the conservative treatment, with the result of its average correction of 33.5% that is compared with 15.9% of Milwaukee brace. 6. Halofemoral traction was effectively applied in the cases of rigid and severe curve; the initial curve 76.3 degress with 21.3% of flexibility. 7. Loss of correction in operative treatment was 2.3 degrees (6.5%).