Harrington instrumentation and arthrodesis for idiopathic scoliosis. A twenty-one-year follow-up.

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.