Rare spine procedure performed on 9-year-old
The child underwent multiple surgeries for both hip joints before this surgery and his both lower limbs are not in equal length and not stable.
Chennai: A 9-year-old boy born with deformity in the both hip joints and spine with early onset of Scoliosis was successfully treated with magnetic controlled growth rod procedure to avoid multiple spine surgeries at Global Spine Institute at Gleneagles Global Health City recently.
The child had 68 degree thoracic scoliosis curve with broken implants in the spine and medicos decided to perform magnetic rod procedure instead of doing multiple surgeries for lengthening.
Dr S. Karunakaran, director, Global Spine Institute, “In this novel technique, instead of doing multiple surgeries for lengthening, we can do lengthening by magnetic controlled motor and distract the rod to accommodate the child's spinal growth in outpatient department”.
The child underwent multiple surgeries for both hip joints before this surgery and his both lower limbs are not in equal length and not stable.
The child's back was also progressively bent with problem in breathing due to which parents were not willing for multiple surgeries on the spine.
“We have done this magnetic growth rod fixation for this boy after removing the previous broken implants. Following surgery, after two weeks he had successfully undergone the lengthening by magnetic controlled motor in the outpatient department,” said Dr Karunakaran.
The lengthening will be done once in every six months in outpatient clinic itself so he doesn't require multiple surgeries for lengthening the spine. The patient is recovering well after the surgery.