Single or dual growing rod in treatment of early onset scoliosis:which is better?

Objective To retrospectively analyze the application of single and dual growing rod techniques in treatment of early onset scoliosis,and compare the early results of two techniques.Methods Retrospective study was done on 18 cases of early onset scoliosis treated with growing rod technique from November 2002 to March 2009.Single growing rod group included 5 cases and dual growing rod group included 13 cases.We compared the operation time,intra-operative bleeding,correction rate,changes in distance between C7-S1 and incidence of complications of the first operation between two techniques.Results The average post-operative follow-up duration was 39.9 months (14-89).There was no difference in operation time,intra-operative bleeding and incidence of complications between two techniques.There was no difference in preoperative coronal Cobb angle and preoperative sagittal Cobb angle between single growing rod group and dual growing rod group.Correction rate of dual growing rod group was significantly superior to single growing rod group in coronal plane (P＜0.01),but not in sagittal plane.Increase of the distance between C7-S1 dual growing rod group was significantly larger than the single growing rod group (P＜0.05).Conclusion Growing rod technique is an effective option for early onset scoliosis.Dual growing rod technique is relatively superior to single growing rod technique in correction outcomes. Key words: Scoliosis; Surgical procedures,operative; Follow-up studies