Scoliosis after thoracotomy/sternotomy in children with congenital heart disease

CONTEXT: Congenital heart disease (CHD) patients bear a higher risk of scoliosis during their lifetime compared to their normal counterparts. On the other hand, operation on chest wall has been shown to increase the risk of scoliosis. However, the data are inconclusive. The present retrospective analysis is undertaken to determine the frequency of post-thoracotomy/sternotomy scoliosis in children with CHD. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred and eighty children with CHD who underwent thoracotomy/sternotomy and had a minimum followup of 3 years in a teaching center from 1997 to 2010 were recruited. After operation, all the patients were regularly examined for the development of scoliosis. 102 patients underwent thoracotomy and 78 sternotomy. Student's t test, Chi-square test, Fisher's exact test were used for statistical analyses. RESULTS: Eighty-eight males and 92 females with a mean age of 9.95 ± 2.31 (range: 5–15) years were enrolled. The mean age at operation was 2.59 ± 1.66 (range: 0–9) years and the mean follow-up period was 7.36 ± 2.12 (range: 5–13) years. Scoliosis was confirmed in two patients (1.1%): 1 (1%) in the thoracotomy group (a 12-year-old female operated 2 years earlier with a spinal 22° convexity to the right and 78° kyphosis) and another (1.1%) in the sternotomy group (an 8-year-old female operated during her neonatal period with a spinal 23° convexity to the left). CONCLUSION: Scoliosis is not a common finding among the operated children with CHD in our center.