A questionnaire was sent to 206 consecutive patients who were operated
on for idiopathic scoliosis by Dr. Paul R. Harrington between 1961 and
1963. Eighty-three per cent of the patients responded to the questionnaire,
which consisted of five sections: demographic data, activities of daily
living, back symptoms (pain and fatigue), a history of personal and family
health, and a personal assessment of the back. One hundred and eleven
patients also sent recent radiographs. A control group, comprising 100
individuals who did not have scoliosis and had been matched for age and
sex, was given the same questionnaire. The study group had more pain in the
interscapular and thoracolumbar regions compared with the control group,
but there was no difference with respect to pain in the lumbosacral area or
the low back. Neither pain nor fatigue was related to the type of curve,
the preoperative degree of curvature, the degree of curvature as seen on
the most recent radiograph, the extent of fusion into the lumbar spine, or
the presence of a broken rod. Twenty-one years after the operation, the
patients were functioning quite well compared with the control
subjects.