Kyphosis in childhood and adolescence

Kyphosis has become an increasingly important problem to the surgeon interested in the management of significant spinal deformity. As scoliosis has become better understood, the more difficult problems have become apparent and one of the most difficult of these is kyphosis. Kyphosis is the deformity which can produce paraplegia if it progresses to a significant degree and remains untreated. Contrary to scoliosis, in which bracing and posterior fusion alone are usually quite sufficient, kyphosis sometimes responds to bracing and other times it does not. If surgical treatment is necessary it quite often requires an anterior fusion. The purpose of this presentation is to give an overall review of the various etiologies of kyphosis and the current status of management of these various problems.