The postoperative management of scoliosis patients treated with Harrington instrumentation and fusion.

A retrospective study of maintenance of correction as affected by modifications in the management of patients surgically treated for scoliosis showed better results in Group B than in Group A. No supplementary bone was used in the 187 patients in Group A, who were maintained recumbent for three months postoperatively and who wore an underarm body cast for six months. The 177 patients in Group B received autogenous iliac-bone grafts, were allowed to walk seven to ten days postoperatively, and wore an underarm body cast for nine months. By two years postoperatively the patients in Group A had lost an average of 8.3 degrees of correction, and the patients in Group B had lost 4.3 degrees. A pseudarthrosis developed in eight patients in Group A and in one patient in Group B.