Evaluation of pulmonary function in adolescent idiopathic thoracic scoliosis

Abstract

Pulmonary function is known to be effected adversely in congenital and infantile scoliosis. But the changes in lung function in adolescent scoliosis are not much studied. We evaluated 33 patients with adolescent idiopathic thoracic or thoracolumbar scoliosis with Cobb's angle more than 40º. Spirometry was done for all the patients pre-operatively. Percentage predictions of Total lung capacity, Forced vital capacity and Forced expiratory volume in one second were studied to evaluate pulmonary function. These variations were compared against Cobb's angle, hypokyphosis, number of involved vertebrae and coronal imbalance. We found that only number of involved vertebrae has significant correlation with decreased lung function. Cobb's angle, coronal imbalance and hypokyphosis did not have any significant association to the decreased lung function in our analysis.