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Disagreements in surgical planning still exist between spinal surgeons in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis: a multisurgeon assessment

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Abstract

Purpose

Determining a surgical plan for the treatment of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) can be challenging. Despite treatment recommendations and classification systems (such as the Lenke classification system) there is still no consensus on the optimal surgical plan for each curve type. The main objective of this study is to analyze the disagreements in surgical planning between spinal surgeons in AIS.

Methods

In a monthly meeting, four orthopaedic spine surgeons from different institutions analyzed a consecutive series of AIS patients. The differences in surgical plans were evaluated for each patient. The primary physician of the patient presented the case and specifically stated the Lenke type of the deformity in the presentation. We wanted to specifically document the disagreements between surgeons despite knowing the Lenke type of the deformity.

Results

One hundred consecutive AIS patients were reviewed over a 10-month period. There was a difference of at least one surgical plan from at least one surgeon in 31 of the cases; 30 of these disagreements in surgical planning were about fusion levels; 19 of these 30 disagreements were in only the upper instrumented vertebra (UIV), while seven were disagreements in only the lowest instrumented vertebra (LIV). In four cases, both the UIV and LIV levels varied.

Conclusions

There was at least one difference in surgical planning in 31 of the 100 cases (31 %). This shows that despite treatment algorithms and the Lenke classification system, disagreements in surgical planning still exist between spinal surgeons.

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Conflict of interest

None declared.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Anadolu Medical Center, Cumhuriyet Mahallesi 2255 Sokak No. 3 Gebze, 41400, Kocaeli, Turkey

    H. Yener Erken

  2. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, School of Medicine, Suleyman Demirel University, Isparta, Turkey

    Halil Burc

  3. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Umraniye Education and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey

    Gursel Saka

  4. Bosphorus Spine Center, Istanbul, Turkey

    Mehmet Aydogan

Authors
  1. H. Yener Erken
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  2. Halil Burc
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  3. Gursel Saka
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  4. Mehmet Aydogan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to H. Yener Erken.

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Erken, H.Y., Burc, H., Saka, G. et al. Disagreements in surgical planning still exist between spinal surgeons in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis: a multisurgeon assessment. Eur Spine J 23, 1258–1262 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00586-014-3278-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00586-014-3278-y

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