21-month-old undergoes successful spinal deformity correction

A team of doctors has achieved success of a new kind by conducting a deformity correction on a 21-month-old male child who was suffering from a spinal cord deformity called kyphotic deformity -- an excessive outside curvature of the spine which causes hunching.

Doctors from the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre (ISIC) explained that generally, upper back spine is normally curved outwards to a certain degree which in medical terms is called "kyphosis" or the "kyphotic" curve.

"We conducted MRI which revealed that there was destruction of back bones due to tuberculosis, which caused severe deformity and spinal cord compression leading to weakness in the legs," said Gururaj Sangondimath, Consultant Spine Surgery, Indian Spinal Injuries Centre (ISIC), in a statement.

The normal curvature of neck and lower back bends the spine inward. These outward and inward curves of the spine help the spine to bear the load of a person with less energy consumption. Abnormal curvature is known as kyphotic deformity.

In this case, the boy had a curvature of 110 degrees, whereas normal curvature is up to 40 to 45 degrees. For the team of doctors treating the patient, the procedure was not without challenges, the doctor pointed out.

The doctors undertook a four-hour-long surgery to correct the spine deformity. The surgery was successful as the deformity was corrected by reducing the curvature to 40 degrees from 110 degrees.

"This was a highly challenging case of kyphosis, especially due to the age of the patient. It is for the first time in India that such a young child has successfully undergone a spinal deformity correction," Sangondimath said.