Christine Coillard, Michel A. Leroux, Karl F. Zabjek, Charles Rivard


April 2003, Volume 12, Issue 2, pp 141 - 148 Original Article Read Full Article 10.1007/s00586-002-0467-x

First Online: 01 April 2003

The objective of this study was to assess the success of treatment during the follow-up of a group of 195 idiopathic scoliosis (IS) patients consecutively treated with the SpineCor system. A survival analysis was performed to estimate the cumulative probability of success during treatment, at follow-up and for the combined treatment and follow-up period. Success was defined as either a correction or stabilization of ±5° or more, and failure as a worsening of more than 5°. The patient cohort was categorized before treatment into curves less than 30° (group 1), and curves greater than 30° (group 2). The survival analysis indicated a cumulative probability of success that increased during treatment with the patient wearing the brace (Year 1: 0.30, 0.39; Year 2: 0.62, 0.79; Year 3: 0.92, 0.89, for groups 1 and 2 respectively). During the post-treatment follow-up period, there was a stabilization (Year 1 post-treatment: 0.94, 0.89; Year 2 post-treatment: 0.85, 0.81), with an overall probability of success of 0.92 and 0.88 after 4 years of combined treatment and post-treatment follow-up. For the 29 patients who had a minimum follow-up of 2 years (initial Cobb angle: 30°±9°), the trend during treatment was a decrease in spinal curvature at 3 months, with a mean difference of 10° (SD 5°); at termination of treatment a mean difference of 7° (SD 7°); and at the time of the 1- and 2-year follow-ups there was a difference of 4° (SD 7°) and 5° (SD 7°) respectively, with reference to the initial out of brace condition. At 2 years follow-up there was an overall correction of greater than 5° for 55% of the patients, 38% had a stabilisation and 7% had worsened by more than 5°. This initial cohort of patients demonstrated a general trend of initial decrease in spinal curvature in brace, followed by a correction and/or stabilisation at the end of treatment, which was maintained through 1, and 2 years’ follow-up.


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