Originally posted by Pooka1
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I'm going to parse through the sentence on bracing because it seems suggests things which aren't in keeping with the research:
"an ethical issue . . . since it could be that braces only delay surgery" - well, it *could* be that braces only delay surgery. I'm not aware of any research that shows that, but I guess it could be. See my previous post - in any long term study I've seen, braced and surgical kids have about the same level of resurgery, pain, etc. So, not to say that what you're proposing isn't so, but you'd need to show me some evidence of its truth.
"in the subset of kids who were apparently successful with bracing" - from the research, the successful subset is pretty substantial for those kids wearing a brace 23/7. Only 7 or 8% of them go on to have surgery by maturity - 93% of them avoid it. That's more than a subset - I'd call it an overwhelming majority.
"who didn't wear a brace needlessly" - see the two sentences above. 93% avoiding surgery by maturity, and most of those then dropped into about the same risk pool of future surgery as adults as the kids who had surgery, at least according to any long term study I've seen.
Is it better to hit 18 with a 32 degree curve in an unfused spine vs. 15 degree with a fused spine? Beats me, but I haven't seen anything which suggests that one is greatly preferable to the other in the long run. Until I see that, avoiding the danger of the initial surgery would tip the scales towards bracing, IMO, and apparently in the opinion of all those experts who are choosing not to do surgery until the child hits nearer to 50 degrees.
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