Blog Topic: Severe, complex congenital scoliosis cases using Shilla procedures

Over the last 6 Blog posts congenital scoliosis has been exhaustively presented and explained.  Most cases of congenital scoliosis are mild and do not require surgery.  Of those that do need surgery there are several well-accepted techniques for improvement and control of the scoliosis: distraction constructs (traditional growing rods, magnetically-controlled growing rods, VEPTR), resection with short/long fusion, fusion without resection, and resection with Shilla procedure.

This post will finish the postings on congenital scoliosis.

The last case which will be posted is a severe, complex type congenital scoliosis.  The major problem for this young patient (4 years old) who has two adjacent hemivertebra which is at the junction of the thoracic spine (chest) and the lumbar spine. These two hemivertebra cause an acute, severe deformity.

 

The management of this problem involved resection of both of the hemivertebra and fusion over the severely involved section of the spine.  Though there is instrumentation which goes high and low in the spine, these screws are Shilla screws, so they are not fused and will slide up and down the spine as the patient grows.

If there are questions about congenital scoliosis or any other post, please let me know…I am happy to answer all inquiries.