Two year post-menarche rule for bracing: myth or reality?
https://doi.org/10.1186/1748-7161-8-S2-O14
© Negrini et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013
Published: 18 September 2013
Keywords
Background
The SRS criteria for bracing studies proposes the limit of two years post-menarche (2YPM). This is also frequently used for bracing in the clinical everyday world.
Purpose
To verify whether the 2YPM rule for bracing is appropriate in clinics, we aimed to answer the following four questions:
Is bone growth (according to Risser) almost completed?
Is stature growth ended?
Has scoliosis definitively finished progressing?
Are bracing results significantly reduced?
Methods
Table 1
Study | Design | Inclusion criteria | Population | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Cross-sectional | All FISP with an x-ray at 2YPM | 1102 patients Age 13.0±1.8 29.4±12.4° Cobb | European Risser staging |
2 | Prospective | All FISP followed-up from Menarche to end of growth (Risser 5 or twice Risser 4 in 12 months) | 263 patients Age 13.1±1.1 35.2±11.1° Cobb | Height growth |
3 | Prospective | All FISP with at least two x-rays after 2YPM | 902 patients with 2110 x-rays Age 15.0±1.1 31.8±12.4° Cobb | Progression |
4 | Prospective | All FISP braced after Menarche followed-up to the end of growth | 230 patients Age 13.6±1.7 34.1±10.3° Cobb | Results of bracing |
Results
At 2YPM:
Risser stage is below 3 in 15.7%, and is still 0 in 2.4%.
Growth is not ended and is still decreasing (2.5 cm/y): 5% of patients have 4 cm of residual growth, 12% 3 cm and 25% 2 cm. End of growth is reached around 48 months post-menarche.
Scoliosis has not yet finished progressing, particularly in the third year, but also in the subsequent six months.
There is no change in the positive results of bracing before and after 2YPM, either for clinical-radiographic results and for percentage of patients improved/worsened.
Conclusions and discussion
These results suggest the need to carefully check the usefulness of the 2YPM rule for clinical studies. While reaching clinical therapeutic decisions in front of single patients, 2YPM is not a reliable parameter, at least not in Italy.
Authors’ Affiliations
References
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Copyright
This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
