Evaluation surgical treatment results of scoliosis in patients with neurofibromatosis

Surgical treatment of spinal deformity resulting from neurofibromatosis (NF) is a major challenge for orthopedic spine surgeons. There are several problems and complications including pseudoarthrosis and cure progress despite treatment. Progressive kyphoscoliosis is the most important spinal deformity. The present study aims to evaluate surgical treatment results in severe spinal involvement cases.
This analytical a-descriptive study evaluated 20 patients with NF, severe scoliosis and kyphosis (up to 50°) hospitalized and treated at our center during the past 10 years. The treatment failure rate and complications were studied.
In this study, 20 cases with NF and kyphoscoliosis with the mean age of 13.00 ± 7.18 years were studied. These case series were consisted of 13 (65%) males and 7 (35%) females. Overall treatment failure was 45%. However, it was 55% of failure happened in posterior fusion alone. Failure rate was reported 36% in the combined anterior and posterior fusion and mainly seen in younger than 8-years children. Surgical complications were found in 20% with pseudoarthrosis as the most common one. There were no infections and neurological complications. Statistically, there was a significant negative relation between age and curve progression in scoliosis and kyphosis during the 2 years follow-up period. There was not any significant difference between genders considering curvature progress.
The combined anterior and posterior fusion is probably more effective treatment, especially at early ages when more aggressive treatment is required since it reduces the treatment failure possibility.