Health-related quality-of-life in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis patients 25 years after treatment.

Background: Since 1962 to the mid eighties the Harrington Rod instrumentation was the Golden standard for surgical treatment of Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS). The Boston braces were introduced in the 1970´s and are still used as a conservative treatment, for curves less than 40°. Very few long-term studies exists, focusing on the health related quality of life. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the long-term health related outcome, in a cohort of AIS patients, treated 25 years ago.

Method: 219 consecutive patients treated with Boston brace (Brace) or posterior spinal fusion (PSF) using Harrington- DDT instrumentation between 1983 and 1990 at Rigshospitalet Copenhagen, were invited to participate in a long-term evaluation study. A validated Danish version of the Scoliosis Research Society 22R (SRS22R) and Short Form-36 (SF36v1) were administrated to the patients two weeks before the clinical and radiological examination.

Results: 159 (72,6 %) patients participated in the clinical follow up and questionnaires, 11 patients participated only in the questionnaires, 8 emigrated, 4 were excluded due to progressive neurological disease and 2 were deceased. The total follow up was 170 patients (83 %), and the average follow up was 24.5 years (22-30 years). SRS22R domain scores were within the range described as normal for the general population with no statistical difference between the groups except in the Satisfaction domain, where the PSF group had better scores than the braced group. The SF36 PCS and MCS scores in both AIS cohorts were similar to the scores for the general population.

Conclusion: HRQOLs, as measured by the SRS22R and SF-36, of adult AIS patients treated with Boston brace or PSF during adolescence were similar to the general population. No clinical progression of the deformity has been detected during the 25-year follow up period. The PSF group had a small but statistically significant higher score in the Satisfaction domain compared to the braced group.

Trial registration: S-20110025 Regional Committees on Health Research Ethics for Southern Denmark.