Abstract
Objective: Determination of the height at maturity of patients with congenital vertebral anomalies and analysis of the effect of spinal surgery.
Design: Review of clinical measurements collected prospectively.
Subjects: Patients with congenital vertebral anomaly who had passed their sixteenth birthdays.
Outcome measures: Stature compared to normal centiles for age and gender, with consideration of the type of abnormality, age at surgery and co-existing abnormalities.
Results: Thirty-eight boys, mean age 16.41 years, SD 0.31, and 79 girls, mean age 16.76 yrs, SD 1.3 were identified. Growth rate over two years after age16 years was slow (boys: 1.0 cm, SD 3.05; girls: 0.33 cms, SD 1.98). At maturity, mean height for boys was just above the third centile while girls were on theirs. Height was significantly lower for patients with prior spinal surgery and with a diagnosis of VACTERL association. In boys, there was no correlation between age at surgery and final height, but in girls final height correlated significantly with age at diagnosis and at surgery and negatively with age at menarche.
Conclusion: Stature at maturity is reduced and this is exacerbated by associated abnormalities and by spinal surgery. However, those with more severe abnormalities are more likely to have had surgery, and these two effects were not differentiated in this study.
Abstracts prepared by Mr. A. J. Stirling, FRCS, and Miss A. Weaver. Correspondence should be addressed to Miss A. Weaver at the Research and Teaching Centre, Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, Northfield, Birmingham, B31 2AP, UK
BritSpine 2002, the second combined meeting of the British Association of Spinal Surgeons, the British Cervical Spine Society, The British Scoliosis Society and the Society for Back Pain Research, took place at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham UK between 27th February and 1st March 2002. The following presentations and posters were given and displayed.
