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New Surgical Treatment Technique to Treat Scoliosis in Children

Scoliosis is aspinal condition that usually occurs on people. 80 percent of these people have idiopathic (unknown cause) scoliosis, and the other 20 percentare caused by genetic inheritance, abnormal muscle related diseases, etc.

Dr.Tinnakorn Pluemvitayaporn, a spine surgeon of Vejthani Hospital said that an idiopathic scoliosis usually occurs on teenagers aged between 10 – 18 years old. However, it mostly occurs on teenagers aged between 13 – 15 years old and on female more than male around 10/1.

“Most of the patients have uneven shoulders or hips, some of them might have other complications such as chronic back pain, or abnormal nerve and muscle. For the idiopathic scoliosis treatment, the doctor will keep following-up the patients’ symptoms and x-ray, let the patients wear back braces to support thespine and maintain the symptoms; as well as perform spine surgery to straighten the spine” said, Dr.Tinnakorn.

A common surgical spine procedure that the surgeon usually does for the patients who have idiopathic scoliosis is Deformity and Scoliosis spine procedure. It is usually done by using metal screws, rods, and plates to permanently fuse certain segments of the spine to straighten up and reduce the curves of the spine. However, the disadvantages of this procedure are limited movement and a large slit on the center of the back.

Nowadays, there is a new surgical spine procedure called Anterior Vertebral Body Tethering Procedure (AVBT), it is done by using fusion less system along with growth modulation technique to treat scoliosis. With this procedure, the spine is able to grow along the healthier path. The surgeon will use the Strong flexible cable/polymer (Polyethylene-terephthalate) to adjust the curves of the spine, and it is more flexible compared to the traditional surgical spine procedures. Moreover, the patient will receive very little trauma on the tissue of the back which leads to faster recovery time; and the patients are able to play sports within 6 – 8 weeks after the surgery.