Hi Elisa,
No problem being nosy - I brought it up.
As best I can discern, people with high thoracic scoliosis and/or kyphosis (both of which my son has) are more likely to start curving forward above the fused segment. So, although their main curve is fused, they start getting a severe head-forward posture.. Since my son's head forward posture is his *main* complaint now (and it's much, much better than it used to be), surgery could actually make his condition worse. If the curve above the fusion gets too bad, then they have to fuse into the neck.
So, yeah, if it weren't for that, I'd be more on the fence about surgery. But, given his risk of further complications with surgery, we're open to just about anything to avoid it.
I keep saying this, but I'm just completely shocked at how little focus there is on this in the literature. If "regular" scoliosis fusion made the complementary curve *increase," the literature would be full of it and doctors would be working furiously to resolve the problem (and would likely not be doing so many surgeries). But, I guess, because it's a somewhat small subset who have this risk, the literature is fairly mute on the matter.
No problem being nosy - I brought it up.
As best I can discern, people with high thoracic scoliosis and/or kyphosis (both of which my son has) are more likely to start curving forward above the fused segment. So, although their main curve is fused, they start getting a severe head-forward posture.. Since my son's head forward posture is his *main* complaint now (and it's much, much better than it used to be), surgery could actually make his condition worse. If the curve above the fusion gets too bad, then they have to fuse into the neck.
So, yeah, if it weren't for that, I'd be more on the fence about surgery. But, given his risk of further complications with surgery, we're open to just about anything to avoid it.
I keep saying this, but I'm just completely shocked at how little focus there is on this in the literature. If "regular" scoliosis fusion made the complementary curve *increase," the literature would be full of it and doctors would be working furiously to resolve the problem (and would likely not be doing so many surgeries). But, I guess, because it's a somewhat small subset who have this risk, the literature is fairly mute on the matter.
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