Time to surgery for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis: How long does it take? A multicenter study.

Study Design: Retrospective review of multicentric data.

Objectives: To estimate the time from initial visit to surgery in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) patients and the main reasons for the time to surgery in a multicenter study.

Methods: This retrospective study evaluated 509 patients with AIS from 16 hospitals across six Latin American countries. From each hospital's deformity registry, the following patient data were extracted: demographics, main curve Cobb angle, Lenke Classification at the initial visit and time of surgery, time from indication-for-surgery to surgery, curve progression, Risser skeletal-maturity score and causes for surgical cancelation or delay. Surgeons were asked if they needed to change the original surgical plan due to curve progression. Data also were collected on each hospital's waiting list numbers and mean delay to AIS surgery.

Results: 66.8% of the patients waited over six months and 33.9% over a year. Waiting time was not impacted by the patient's age when surgery first became indicated ( = 0.22) but waiting time did differ between countries ( < 0.001) and hospitals ( < 0.001). Longer time to surgery was significantly associated with increasing magnitude of the Cobb angle through the second year of waiting ( < 0.001). Reported causes for delay were hospital-related (48.4%), economic (47.3%), and logistic (4.2%). Oddly, waiting time for surgery did not correlate with the hospital's reported waiting-list lengths ( = 0.57).

Conclusion: Prolonged waits for AIS surgery are common in Latin America, with rare exceptions. At most centers, patients wait over six months, most commonly for economic and hospital-related reasons. Whether this directly impacts surgical outcomes in Latin America still must be studied.