Introduction:

Surgical treatment of early onset scoliosis (EOS) is one of the most challenging problems of spine surgery and includes staged distraction and final fusion at the end of skeletal maturity that remains debatable.

Aim:

The objective of the review is to evaluate the efficacy of final fusion following staged distraction with VEPTR instrumentation in patients with EOS.

Materials and methods:

Outcomes of multi-staged operative treatment of 37 patients with EOS of different etiology were reviewed. Medical records and radiographs of the patients were retrospectively analyzed. Standing postero-anterior and lateral spine radiographs were used for the spinal radiologic assessment before and after each stage of distraction-based treatment, before and after final fusion and at the last follow-up.

Results:

The mean age of patients at baseline was 5.2 years and the mean age at final fusion was 13.9 years. All patients demonstrated decrease in the angle of primary (from 81.5° to 51.6°) and secondary (from 59.3° to 37.8°) curves, increase of the height and normalized body balance. The mean height increased from 104.8 cm to 141.0 cm, and the mean weight increased from 15 kg to 35 kg throughout the treatment period. The height of the thoracic and lumbar vertebra (Th1-S1) increased from 245 mm to 340 mm, and that of the thoracic vertebra – from 136 mm to 193 mm. There was a mean of 2.3 complications per patient during distraction performed in a staged manner, and they were arrested during elective procedures. There were 7 (19%) complications after final fusion that required 6 (16%) unplanned revisions. Radiologic evidence of spontaneous autofusion was seen in the lumbar spine of the patients with the inferior anchor at the lumbar vertebra.

Conclusions:

Multi-staged pediatric surgeries performed in the first decade of life facilitate radical changes in the natural history of progressive scoliosis and ensure satisfactory functional and cosmetic results despite multiple difficulties and complications. The VEPTR instrumentation used for the thoracic curve is unlikely to result in the spinal fusion of the major arch and this is the cause for the use of third-generation instrumented final spinal fusion in the patients.