Implant Complications After Magnetically Controlled Growing Rods for Early Onset Scoliosis: A Multicenter Retrospective Review

Abstract

Level IV.

Magnetically controlled growing rod in early onset scoliosis: a 30-case multicenter study

“…The current series demonstrates satisfactory coronal deformity correction over time, and little improvement of T1 T12 and T1 S1 distances with MCGR, in accordance with the literature [8 10, 24 27], although with a higher complication rate. Indeed, we report 57% of complication in our series against 38.8% in the series of Choi et al in 2016 (about 55 cases with a mean follow-up of 19.4 months) [26]. Concerning the revision rate, it is quite similar in both series with 27.8% in Choi et al's, vs 30% in ours [26].…”

“…Indeed, we report 57% of complication in our series against 38.8% in the series of Choi et al in 2016 (about 55 cases with a mean follow-up of 19.4 months) [26]. Concerning the revision rate, it is quite similar in both series with 27.8% in Choi et al's, vs 30% in ours [26]. This high rate of revision resulted in a revisionfree survival of only 50% at 27.9 months in our study.…”

“…Alike in Choi et al's study [26], most of the revisions and complications (rod breakage and proximal pull-outs) were not related to the MCGR implant itself. The distraction system failed in two cases only in our series.…”

“…It was a backtracking of the rod with, both times, complete loss of the gained length. To the best of our knowledge, failure of the system with backtracking has been reported twice before in the literature: one case by Ridderbusch et al [27] and six cases by Choi et al [26].…”

No free lunch in orthopedics

“…Spine surgery has seen tremendous advances in techniques in implants as well as cost, but proven improvement in patient outcomes has not been well documented [12,13].…”