Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Surgery, Federal Medical Centre, Birnin Kebbi, Nigeria
  • 2 Department of Orthopaedics, Russian Ilizarov Scientific Center, Kurgan, Russia
Malays Orthop J, 2019 Mar;13(1):49-53.
PMID: 31001385 DOI: 10.5704/MOJ.1903.010

Abstract

Severe rigid neuromuscular scoliosis is a major challenge to the spine surgeon due to the possibilities of neurological sequelae from acute correction of the deformity. Halo gravity traction has been considered as a way of reducing the deformity before correction to prevent neurological complications. Three female patients with severe neuromuscular scoliosis aged seven to 13 years with main coronal Cobb angle of 95°-128° and Kyphotic Cobb of 47°-118° having ≤35% flexibility on traction, had between 18 to 23 days of 16 hour/day of halo gravity traction and night time supine traction with 4kg weight for 7-8 hours. They had 28.9% and 18.5% of main coronal and kyphotic Cobb angle correction post-traction respectively. All had posterior instrumentation and post-operatively, they had correction of main coronal Cobb angle of 29°-58° and kyphotic Cobb angle of 30°-77° with no neurological complication. Halo gravity traction is therefore a viable option for reducing post-operative neurological complication in rigid severe scoliosis.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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