Pre-op considerations in neuromuscular scoliosis deformity surgery: proceedings of the half day course at the 58th annual meeting of the Scoliosis Research Society

Scoliosis is a common complication of neuromuscular disorders. These patients are frequently recalcitrant to nonoperative treatment. When treated surgically, they have the highest risk of complications of all forms of scoliosis. While recent studies have shown an improvement in the rate of complications, they still remain high ranging from 6.3 to 75% depending upon the underlying etiology and the treatment center (Mohamad et al. in J Pediatr Orthop 27:392–397, 2007; McElroy et al. in Spine, 2012; Toll et al. in J Neurosurg Pediatr 22:207–213, 2018; Cognetti et al. in Neurosurg Focus 43:E10, 2017). For those patients who are able to recover from the perioperative period without major complications, several recent studies have shown decreased long-term mortality and improved health-related quality of life in neuromuscular patients who have undergone spine fusion (Bohtz et al. in J Pediatr Orthop 31:668–673, 2011; Ahonen et al. in Neurology 101:e1787–e1792, 2023; Jain et al. in JBJS 98:1821–1828, 2016). It is critically important to optimize patients preoperatively to minimize the risk of post-operative complications and maximize long-term outcomes. In order to do so, one must familiarize themselves with the common complications and their treatment. The most common complications are pulmonary in nature. With reported rates as high as 23–29%, pre-operative optimization should be employed for these patients to minimize the risk of post-operative complications (Sharma et al. in Eur Spine J 22:1230–1249, 2013; Rumalla et al. in J Neurosurg Spine 25:500–508, 2016). The next most common cause of complications are implant related, with 13–23% of patients experiencing an implant-related complication that may require a second procedure (Toll et al. in J Neurosurg Pediatr 22:207–213, 2018; Sharma et al. in Eur Spine J 22:1230–1249, 2013) Therefore optimization of bone quality prior to surgical intervention is important to help minimize the risk of instrumentation failure. Optimization of muscle tone and spasticity may help to decrease the risk of instrumentation complications, but may also contribute to the progression of scoliosis. While only 3% of patients have neurologic complication, significant equipoise remains regarding whether or not patients should undergo prophylactic detethering procedures to minimize those risks (Sharma et al. in Eur Spine J 22:1230–1249, 2013). Although only 1.8% of complications are classified as cardiac related, they can be among the mos