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For children with severe cerebral palsy (CP), surgery for scoliosis (sideways curvature of the spine) significantly improves the quality of life (QoL) for them and their caregivers, reports a study in the April 4, 2018, issue of The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. The journal is published in partnership with Wolters Kluwer.
"Scoliosis surgery in patients with CP leads to a significant improvement in health-related QoL, which is maintained five years following surgery," write Firoz Miyanji, MD, of British Columbia Children's Hospital, Vancouver, and colleagues from seven other North American medical centers. Their study provides evidence that surgery for scoliosis improves outcomes important to severely disabled children with CP and their parents/caregivers -- outweighing the substantial rate of complications during the first year after surgery.
[...] Surgery may be performed to stop scoliosis progression. However, the true benefits of surgery in improving QoL are difficult to quantify in these complex cases. Dr. Miyanji and colleagues used a validated questionnaire specifically designed for evaluation of children with severe CP -- the Caregiver Priorities and Child Health Index of Life with Disabilities, or "CPCHILD" -- to assess the impact of scoliosis surgery at one, two, and five years postoperatively.
Scoliosis surgery significantly reduced the spinal curvature. On a standard x-ray measurement (Cobb angle), the curve was reduced from the severe to the mild-to-moderate range, on average. The improvement remained stable through two and five years after surgery.
Analysis of the CPCHILD scores showed improvements QoL for the patients with CP and their caregivers. In addition to improvement in the total CPCHILD score, there were improvements in the areas of personal care, positioning, and comfort. Overall, 92 percent of caregivers reported that their child's QoL was better one year after scoliosis surgery. Like the x-ray improvements, the gains in QoL persisted throughout follow-up.
As in previous studies of scoliosis surgery in children with CP, complications were common. This was especially so during the first year after surgery, when 46 percent of patients experienced a complication, most commonly pneumonia and surgical site infections. However, the first-year complications had little or no impact on QoL outcomes.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Booga1 on Friday April 06 2018, @11:52PM
Scoliosis is a highly varied condition.
I knew a kid with it when I was in middle school. His back was curved like someone twisted his spine six inches left and six inches forward right where the rib cage was. It was moderate uncomfortable for him, but the real challenge came when he had to do any kind of lifting. The muscle connectivity just wasn't capable of sustaining lifts by just 2/3 vertebrae. Besides the physical appearance, it was borderline crippling in limiting what he could do. He had surgery at the end of middle school and had to wear a chest-to-back brace for what seemed like at least a year. By the time he recovered, you couldn't look at him and tell he had the condition. He also got about 90% better in what he could do, physically.
I can imagine that anything that causes you to lose control over muscles could be significantly worse if someone had a severe scoliosis condition.