Magnetic Growing Rods for Early Onset Scoliosis
In the past few years, there has been an increasing interest in using growing rods surgery to replace the standard scoliosis rod surgery in children with severe scoliosis who also had early onset of their curves. The idea is that the growing rods would not require far fewer additional surgeries due to complications with the hardware due to the growth of the child.
Researchers conducting a recent study published in The Spine Journal, to determine if there were fewer complications in surgery with magnetic-controlled growing rods than with conventional growing rods.
From a sample of 37 patients with early onset scoliosis, 10 had magnetic-controlled growing rods, and 27 had the conventional growing rods.
Although the magnetic-controlled growing rod patients experienced lower deep infection risk and fewer superficial infections, there was a higher rate of complication reported by the magnetic-controlled growing rod patients.
- 76% Of growing rods patients reported at least one complication associated with the surgery
- The complication of the magnetic rods group was double to control group (32/yr vs 15/yr)
- A higher risk of problems with the rod metalwork in the magnetic-controlled growing rod group
- More unplanned returns to the operating room for additional surgery
Conclusion:
The study concluded that while the growing rod procedures did have a lower rate of infection they did not reduce the risk for having to undergo additional surgeries compared to traditional conventional rod surgery.
Read the full article here:
Are there more complications with magnetic growing rods for early scoliosis ? 5 key notes