When you say “pure T fusions” could escape a potential revision are you meaning original fusions that are only in the thoracic vertebrae without extending above or below that? I am fused T2-T12 and everything above looks good and fine while my lumbar is crumbling. It had an existing curve before fusion and after and now it is getting worse, hence the need for another fusion within the next few months.
The surgeon I am having do the revision looked at my original xrays and said, “it’s easy for hindsight to be 20/20 but at looking at these images I’m curious why your original surgeon didn’t fuse you down to L2. If he would have gone down 2 more levels I don’t think you would have ever had to deal with another fusion.”
I was kind of surprised when he said that, also angry at the original surgeon back when I was 12. But, we can’t change the past and can only move forward. Looking back on it a lot of what that surgeon did makes me go “huh?” He very clearly told both my parents and me that my first fusion would be my last fusion, that it would never get worse and after surgery scoliosis would not be something I HAVE but something I HAD. I guess I know now, after thinking it was just a part of my past dead and gone, he was wrong.
Feb 2003 - Diagnosed C (35) T (45) L (25)
Dec 2003 - T2-T12 Fusion correcting to C (8), T (14), L (20)
Oct 2019 - Lumbar curve progressed to 40
Nov 2019 - Thoracic curve progressed to 31
June/July 2020 - T10-S1 Fusion with SI fixation