Congenital Scoliosis, and hunchback deformity

* Parents couldn’t find a solution in their state

* Complex surgery is done by Dr. Suresh Cheekatla of KIMS hospitals

A 9-year-old female from Chhattisgarh was suffering from severe scoliosis, abnormal growing spine deformity, and distorted physical appearance with significant hunch back deformity. Parents noticed this problem after birth. By that time it was in a mild form only. They have taken the baby to the nearby doctors for initial treatment.  They tried to evaluate with spine X-rays and MRI spine. They came to know that this girl has a complex type of Congenital Spinal deformity with multiple fused and incompletely formed vertebral bones which are causing pressure on spinal cord, lungs and heart. The problem progressing rapidly with age. Its malignant progressive nature is responsible for distorted body image with growth.

This child has spinal cord malformation too. So, there is a high chance of paralysis if this problem is not addressed properly and neglected for a long time as this deformed bone is causing compression on the malformed spinal cord. Parents panicked when they came to know that their daughter’s deformity is a very complex one to treat with fair chances of spinal cord injury getting paralysis of both legs and losing bowel bladder sensation with surgery. Because, most of the spinal bones are fused, underdeveloped, and have very small pedicles through which the metal screws are difficult to pass while performing correction of the deformity.

At this point, parents came to know about the spinal deformity correction specialist Dr. Suresh Cheekatla, who has rich experience in treating such complicated congenital scoliosis deformities at KIMS Hospitals, Secunderabad. The parents came here with the hope that she could get cured without any post-surgical complications. Dr. Suresh Cheekatla explained the case details further.

“The patient has been evaluated with proper X-rays, whole spine CT scan, and MRI, which were suggestive of Congenital Dorsal Kyphosis with severe cord compression and with spinal cord malformation (Syrinx).

It’s a real challenge for us to treat this complex major spinal case which usually takes more than 6 hours of surgery time, a young child, and the possibility of high blood loss while doing the surgery as this young kid has a very low volume of blood even two to three hundred ml of blood loss also will become more fatal. Careful pre-operative workup for the surgery opinion from cardiology and pulmonology was taken. After considering the poor socio-economic status of the parents, we wanted to cut down the cost of surgery by planning single-stage deformity correction.

All posterior with hemivertebra resection (removal of partially formed bone), and Pedicle subtraction osteotomy (cutting of a portion of spinal bone to facilitate the deformity correction) were performed. We were able to correct complex deformity with minimal blood loss and reshape her spinal curvature to near normal with the help of intra-operative neuro monitoring without any intra and post-operative complications. Excellent support from the anesthesia team led by Dr. Naresh Kumar helped the surgery a lot specially in maintaining the blood pressures during the surgery. The patient was mobilized on the immediate 1st postoperative day without any difficulties and with the help of our excellent dedicated spinal rehabilitation team we were able to discharge the patient from the hospital on the 4th post-operative day in stable condition” explained Dr. Suresh Cheekatla.