Trunk Rotation

[gscarpato]

Hi, Has anyone had any problems with "trunk rotation". My daughters back looks bad (after 2 surgeries) and her new doctor (Boachie) says it is trunk rotation but never actually answers our questions directly. Like how bad can it get and is there any correction surgery for it? He does say her curvature is good and does not want to do further surgery except to extend her fusion one more section and clean out arthritis from previous surgery. This is because of pain she is in and has nothing to do with the trunk rotation. She is very upset by the way she looks (age 21) and doesnt know what to do. Any comments would be appreciated.
- Original Surgery 2000 - age 14
- Revision Surgery 2004 - to cut one rod causing pain
- Plastic Surgery 2004 - to close open infected incision (no interior infection supposedly)

[suzyjay]

Gscarpato
I got a notice of a private message from you today but there is nothing there.

Suzyjay (Sue)

[ellebee]

I don't know how bad it can become, but I do know you have a very good doctor and if he's not worried about the rotation getting much worse, it most likely won't. Since she's 21, it's probably as bad as it's going to get cause she's most likely finished growing height-wise. From what I understand and from my own experience, trunk rotation is a problem when the surgery happens in mid-growth ... since the spine is fused, her bones can't go up so they end up twisting. This happened to me, and I understand how much it can bother her. Sounds like she's had much more pain than I have, but if you look around on the forum for terms like "rib hump" and the like, you'll find many people who are struggling with this rotation. Not only can it be painful, it sure makes you feel self-conscious as if everyone can see it. For what it's worth, I used to be very embarassed by it, but have slowly come to realize most people honestly don't even notice and your friends don't care, nor do boys. If she's healthy and not in pain, it's probably something she just has to deal with. There is a surgery called thorocoplasty (I think that's the term) and that can reduce the rib hump, but not totally get rid of it, so it's not often advised to do it unless you're having a revision surgery. Hope that helps!