Background:

The prevalence of pleural injury during surgery for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis using an extrapleural approach and the association of pleural injury with postoperative pulmonary function remain unclear. We sought to determine the prevalence of pleural injury associated with an extrapleural approach to adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, and to determine any difference in respiratory function between patients with or without pleural injury.

Methods:

Data from consecutive patients with scoliosis of the thoracolumbar/lumbar spine who underwent anterior spinal fusion using an extrapleural approach were assessed in this retrospective study. We had diagnosed and treated pleural injury according to our algorithm. Pre- and postoperative values of pulmonary function tests and postoperative change rates were compared between patients with and without pleural injury. FVC, %FVC, FEV1.0, and FEV1.0% were evaluated from pulmonary function tests.

Results:

We included data from 51 patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (45 female and 6 male) with a mean age of 17.2 ± 3.5 years in this retrospective study. The group with pleural injury comprised 31 patients and the group without 20. Therefore, the prevalence of pleural injury during an extrapleural approach was 61%. We found no significant differences in preoperative FVC, %FVC, FEV1.0, and FEV1.0% between the groups. We found no significant differences in FVC, %FVC, FEV1.0, and FEV1.0% between the groups at 3 months or 1 year postoperatively. Furthermore, we found no significant differences in the postoperative change ratio of FVC, %FVC, FEV1.0, and FEV1.0% between the groups.

Conclusion:

The prevalence of pleural injury associated with an extrapleural approach to scoliosis was 61%. Pleural injury was not associated with a decrease in postoperative pulmonary function in patients with scoliosis treated using an extrapleural approach.