Fifteen to twenty-five year functional outcomes of twenty-two patients treated with posterior Cotrel-Dubousset type instrumentation: a limited but detailed review of outcomes.

Background: Long-term outcomes of patients undergoing extensive fusions for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) have conflicting results. Moskowitz found uninstrumented scoliosis fusion patients had similar back pain as a normal age matched population. Recently, long-term outcomes of patients with Harrington rod instrumentation were reviewed and found similar functional outcome scores to non-scoliosis patients, with trending toward worse outcomes when fusions extended to L4.