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. 2024 Dec 19;19(1):3-13.
doi: 10.1177/18632521241309531. eCollection 2025 Feb.

What's new in the pediatric spine?

Brice Ilharreborde  1 , Ilkka Helenius  2   3 , Daniel Studer  4 , Carol Hasler  4 , Moyo Kruyt  5 , Jorge Mineiro  6 , Dror Ovadia  7 , David Farrington  8 , Sebastien Pesenti  9 , Muharrem Yazici  10 ; EPOS Spine Study Group
Affiliations

What's new in the pediatric spine?

Brice Ilharreborde et al. J Child Orthop. .

Abstract

Introduction: The field of pediatric spine surgery has encountered major changes and evolutions lately, with new treatment options available and the development of enabling technologies. This article aims to summarize the most relevant recent literature.

Materials and methods: The five most relevant topics were selected and assigned to one or two authors who performed a comprehensive Pubmed database search for articles published in the last 4 years (2021-2024). Only studies with a high level of evidence or clinical relevance were reported.

Results: Thirty-nine articles were selected and analyzed, covering the following subjects: treatment options in tweeners, the impact of new medical treatments in pediatric spine practice, the emergence of new surgical techniques, the development of enabling technologies in scoliosis surgery, and recent relevant randomized controlled trials.

Discussion: Many new surgical concepts and techniques have been developed lately, but their results need to be further assessed on specific subgroups of patients. Numerous significant medical improvements have been reported in the last 5 years, affecting positively the management of syndromic and neuromuscular patients.

Keywords: Pediatric orthopedics; enabling technology; randomized controlled trial; spine; tweeners.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Brice Ilharreborde: Paid consulting for Medtronic and Implanet. Ilkka Helenius: Paid consulting for Medtronic, Globus, and Nuvasive. Daniel Studer: No COI. Carol Hasler: No COI. Moyo Kruyt: Grants from Stryker, Nuvasive, and Kuros Biosciences; Co-founder of Cresco startup company to valorize Sping Distraction System (CDS). Jorge Mineiro: No COI. Dror Ovadia: No COI. David Farrington: No COI. Sebastien Pesenti: Paid consulting for Stryker and Implanet. Muharrem Yazici: No COI.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
An early postoperative radiograph (a) of a 9-year-old SMA2 patient with bilateral SDS with iliosacral fixation. At a 2-year follow-up (b), spinal length gained 3 cm. Fifty and 100 N springs were used in the construct (c). SMA: spinal muscular atrophy; SDS: spring distraction system.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Preoperative (a), postoperative (b), and 4-year follow-up (c) of neuromuscular scoliosis treated by the bipolar technique.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Poor results 1 year after anterior VBT (a) in a 15-year-old girl, revised with T2L3 posterior fusion (b). VBT: vertebral body tethering.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Anteroposterior and lateral postoperative radiographs of a 16-year-old patient with Friedreich’s ataxia who underwent S2AI screw insertion with robotic assistance.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
T8L3 posterior fusion was performed on a 9-year-old MPS patient. The procedure was performed via a 15 cm incision (a), and navigation was used to control screws trajectory (b) in such dystrophic pedicles, but excellent lateral (c) and frontal (d) corrections were obtained in less than 4 h. MPS: mucopolysaccharidosis.
Figure 6.
Figure 6.
Concept of the new 3D AIS classification, in which each scoliotic curve will be divided and sub-analyzed into three components (proximal thoracic, main thoracic, and lumbar). The orientation in the transverse plane and the apical rotation of each component will be automatically calculated and reported. AIS: adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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