Is scoliosis surgery a fairly major operation?
Dr. Anand: To correct scoliosis in an adult is a pretty major undertaking, especially if you’re going to correct the scoliosis, the curve, and take care of the whole thing. What’s the difference in terms of operating on a child versus on an adult? Dr. Anand: Children, as we know, are just so resilient. They’re able to handle the magnitude of surgery extremely well. Your curves are very flexible, so you get very great corrections. They’re pliable. You can really get good instrumentation correction to get this done. The biggest thing though, is they’re very resilient. They’re able to tolerate the surgery and the complication rates are significantly lower than in adults. Adults, usually by the time we see them, they have other co-morbidities, like diabetes or blood pressure problems and heart problems, so these co-morbidities have a significant effect on the outcomes in the end. Was there a time when there was a certain subset of adults who had scoliosis who may have needed surgery but co
