Respiratory failure in scoliosis and other thoracic deformities. A survey of patients with home oxygen or ventilator therapy in Sweden.

Registers covering Swedish patients with home ventilator or long-term oxygen therapy were used to study respiratory failure caused by thoracic deformities. In all, 107 patients were studied. Postpolio scoliosis was found in 47 patients. The age of starting therapy varied between 28 and 80 years. Fourteen patients had thoracic deformities other than scoliosis. The mean scoliotic angle was 135 degrees among the patients with scoliosis, and the mean vital capacity was 26% (range, 13-54%) of predicted normal. The yearly demand for home ventilator or oxygen therapy is calculated to three per million inhabitants. No operated patients had respiratory failure, and no patients were found with idiopathic scoliosis and respiratory failure younger than 30 years of age, which may indicate a preventive effect of corrective surgery on the development of respiratory failure.