Sixty-three first, second, or third-time repairs of one or more
pseudarthroses were done in fifty-one patients who had had an arthrodesis
for idiopathic scoliosis. Forty-five of the patients were female and six
were male. The average age was 30.2 years. The indications for the
sixty-three repairs were pain (twenty-five repairs), progression of the
curve (sixteen), both pain and progression of the curve (twelve), and
radiographic changes only (ten). Failure of the implant was identified
before 27 per cent of the sixty-three procedures. The pseudarthroses were
diagnosed an average of 2.8 years after the initial arthrodeses.
Sixty-eight per cent of the defects were visible on plain radiographs
preoperatively and 32 per cent were identified at operation. During the
time between the original arthrodeses and the repairs of the
pseudarthroses, the scolioses increased by a mean of 7 degrees and the
kyphoses, by a mean of 10 degrees. Harrington distraction was the most
commonly used instrumentation (twenty-six [41 per cent] of the sixty-three
procedures), and autogenous iliac bone was the most commonly used material
for the graft (thirty-three [52 per cent] of the procedures).