Congenital Scoliosis: A Current Concepts Review

Abstract

Context: Congenital scoliosis is a difficult condition for orthopedic surgeons. There are some influencing factors to choose the best treatment option for scoliosis. Objectives: Patients with congenital scoliosis may encounter different anomalies. There exist various surgical techniques with different indications. Methods: Electronic databases, such as Google Scholar, PubMed, and Scopus were searched for congenital scoliosis. Articles published from 1928 to 2020 were searched. A narrative review was conducted by focusing on treatment options. Results: Different methods are presented in the literature that consists of operative and nonoperative approaches. Nonoperative treatment methods are seldom a final choice. They are used to postpone the final surgery. There are different methods of surgeries in the literature; the best treatment strategy concerns the patients’ condition and the surgeon’s preference. Conclusions: The critical issue in the management of congenital scoliosis is to diagnose these patients’ curves before severe progression, i.e. mandatory to achieve desirable results. Usually, a course of nonoperative treatment can be started, but only to postpone the final surgery. The preferred surgical treatment depends on the type of congenital scoliosis and the age of the patient. The treatment of congenital scoliosis should be a multidisciplinary approach due to concomitant morbidity in these patients.