Normal Age-Adjusted Sagittal Spinal Alignment Is Achieved with Surgical Correction in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis.

Study Design: Retrospective analysis.

Purpose: Our hypothesis is that the surgical correction of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) maintains normal sagittal alignment as compared to age-matched normative adolescent population.

Overview of Literature: Sagittal spino-pelvic alignment in AIS has been reported, however, whether corrective spinal fusion surgery re-establishes normal alignment remains unverified.

Methods: Sagittal profiles and spino-pelvic parameters of thirty-eight postsurgical correction AIS patients ≤21 years old without prior fusion from a single institution database were compared to previously published normative age-matched data. Coronal and sagittal measurements including structural coronal Cobb angle, pelvic incidence, pelvic tilt, thoracic kyphosis, lumbar lordosis, sagittal vertical axis, C2-C7 cervical lordosis, C2-C7 sagittal vertical axis, and T1 pelvic angles were measured on standing full-body stereoradiographs using validated software to compare preoperative and 6 months postoperative changes with previously published adolescent norms. A sub-group analysis of patients with type 1 Lenke curves was performed comparing preoperative to postoperative alignment and also comparing this with previously published normative values.

Results: The mean coronal curve of the 38 AIS patients (mean age, 16±2.2 years; 76.3% female) was corrected from 53.6° to 9.6° (80.9%, p <0.01). None of the thoracic and spino-pelvic sagittal parameters changed significantly after surgery in previously hypo- and normo-kyphotic patients. In hyper-kyphotic patients, thoracic kyphosis decreased ( p =0.003) with a reciprocal decrease in lumbar lordosis ( p =0.01), thus lowering pelvic incidence-lumbar lordosis mismatch mismatch ( p =0.009). Structural thoracic scoliosis patients had slightly more thoracic kyphosis than age-matched patients at baseline and surgical correction of the coronal plane of their scoliosis preserved normal sagittal alignment postoperatively. A sub-analysis of Lenke curve type 1 patients (n=24) demonstrated no statistically significant changes in the sagittal alignment postoperatively despite adequate coronal correction.

Conclusions: Surgical correction of the coronal plane in AIS patients preserves sagittal and spino-pelvic alignment as compared to age-matched asymptomatic adolescents.