Scoliosis in China. A general review.

In modern China the investigation and treatment of scoliosis began in the late 1970s. The incidence of scoliosis in the Chinese population of the Sichuan province was 0.064%, and the incidence of >10 degrees for Beijing students was 1.04%. The surgical treatment of scoliosis for 2122 patients reported in the Chinese literature was reviewed by the authors. In this study, the female to male ratio was 1.3:1, the incidence of idiopathic scoliosis was 67.7%, and the incidence of congenital scoliosis was 18.1%. The overall result showed that the correction rate after surgery in the coronal plane was approximately 50% using the Harrington, Luque, Dwyer, or Cotrel-Dubousset instrumentation techniques. However, it would be increased by >60% if a partial vertebrectomy was carefully done and the soft tissue in the concave side was released completely. The postoperative complications were approximately 20% with 0.24% of major spinal cord injury. Biologic and anatomic research of the spine has been done so that the quality of surgical implants can be improved in the future.