Patient specific rods in thoracolumbar kyphoscoliosis surgery protect against proximal junctional failure: a prospective observational study.

Abstract

Adult spinal deformity (ASD) is estimated to affect up to 68% of people over the age of 65. Surgical intervention is widely accepted, after non-operative management, to correct the spinal deformity and improve disability. Spinal rods used for thoracolumbar posterior fixation are usually manufactured straight and bent manually during surgery. This manual bending can cause under- or over-correction of the deformity or rod breakage. Pre-bent patient-specific rods (PSR) have been developed with software allowing preoperative deformity correction planning and provide the surgeon with an intraoperative deformity correction consistent with the surgical plan. Notably, there are reduced operation times because PSR do not require contouring during surgery which results in less rod microfractures and decreased fatigue-life Aim: To report clinical and radiological outcomes using PSR to mid-term follow-up. Specifically, we investigated rates of junctional complications both proximally (kyphosis/failure) and distally (failure).