Late-term outcomes of surgical treatment in idiopathic scoliosis

The most common deformity of vertebral column, scoliosis, has been known since ancient times. Scoliosis causes severe deformities as well as social and psychological impairments in patients.Idiopathic scoliosis is a three dimensional deformity of the vertebral column. Etiology has not been well established. Idiopathic scoliosis accounts for 80 % of all scoliosis cases. Body imbalance and cosmetic impairment are among most common reasons for admitting to the physician.It may not be always possible to correct the curvature of the column, should the mobility of the vertebral column is preserved. Surgical interventions performed for correcting the deformity removes mobile segments and even, they may also cause balance disorders.Aim of the current study is to investigate efficiency of the correction in all three planes of the deformity, to examine course of the resultant correction in the follow-up period, to clarify impacts on the balance parameters and to investigate actual complications by examining patients with idiopathic scoliosis, who were undergone third generation posterior instrumentation in our clinic and were subjected to regular follow-up and had been operated at least eight months ago.Results obtained from our study are in line with the literature findings that mean 79.8 % of major curvatures were applied correction and rate of correction loss in the follow-up period was 3.1 percent.A satisfactory improvement is provided with third generation posterior instrumentation in the coronal plane and in balance parameters and moreover, physiological sagittal inclinations are reserved. Correction of all curvatures using posterior approach is an efficient and successful method associated with low complication rates.Key words: idiopathic scoliosis, posterior instrumentation and fusion, King classification, Lenke classification, correction loss.