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Kyphosis: Adult Scheuermann's Kyphosis, successful outcome after several prior fusion attempts
Description
A 31-year-old female patient came to Dr. Bridwell after she’d had several failed operations for her Scheuermann’s kyphosis by other surgeons. Her kyphosis was actually worse after the failed treatments than before any surgery. Her thoracic spine—the area near the rib cage and shoulder blades —curved 98º. Normal thoracic kyphosis is between 25 and 45°.Treatment
Dr. Bridwell did a posterior spinal fusion to correct the patient’s curve. First, he did multiple Smith-Peterson osteotomies to correct the deformity. A Smith-Petersen osteotomy is a technique that involves cutting through a prior fusion mass at several levels to help realign the spine.
Click on thumbnails to see larger images. Click on the arrows at the bottom of the image to scroll through patient case images, or click the X to close the slideshow.
Dr. Bridwell did a posterior spinal fusion to correct the patient’s curve. First, he did multiple Smith-Peterson osteotomies to correct the deformity. A Smith-Petersen osteotomy is a technique that involves cutting through the fusion mass at several segments to help realign the spine.
Click on thumbnails to see larger images. Click on the arrows at the bottom of the image to scroll through patient case images, or click the X to close the slideshow.
Result
It’s been several years (5 years) since this patient’s surgery. You can see in her post-op photos that her kyphosis was improved quite a bit. Radiographically her kyphosis was improved from 98° to 37°. See the dramatic improvement in her Oswestry score.If you have any questions or would like someone to walk you through this case, please call Dr. Bridwell's office at (314) 747-2526 or (314) 747-2560 and ask to speak to either Bernie or Jackie and they or one of his staff will be happy to explain the case in greater detail to you. To learn more about how to understand SRS and Oswestry Scores, please click here.
