BACKGROUND:The treatment of severe rigid idiopathic scoliosis is the difficulty of clinical treatment. The studies in recent years have shown that the three-stage correction is a safe and effective treatment method. OBJECTIVE:To explore the efficacy of three-stage correction in the treatment of severe rigid scoliosis. METHODS:Retrospective analysis was performed on 10 severe rigid scoliosis patients undergoing three-stage correction, the mean age of the patients was 12 years. The average Cobb angle in the coronal plane was 140° (ranged 110°-180°), the average Cobb angle in the sagittal plane was 75° (ranged 50°-100°). The treatment was divided three stages:anterior release, Halo-plevic traction and third step with posterior osteotomy and fixation. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Al of the patients underwent the surgery safely without severe complications. After anterior release and Halo-plevic traction, the Cobb angle in the coronal plane was 90°, and the mean correction rate was 35.7%;the Cobb angle in the sagittal plane was 50° with correction rate of 33.3%. The mean Cobb angle in the coronal plane was 40° with the correction rate of 71.4%after osteotomy, and the Cobb angle in the sagittal plane was 35° with the correction rate of 53.3%. The results show that three-stage correction is a safe and effective method for the treatment of severe rigid scoliosis.

Objective:To investigate the clinical efficacy of external fixators combined with anterolateral thigh musculocutaneous flap for treatment of Gustilo type IIIB/C open tibiofibular fractures.Methods:A retrospective case series study was conducted to analyze clinical data of 15 patients with Gustilo type IIIB/C open tibiofibular fractures admitted to Ruihua Hospital of Soochow University from March 2016 to June 2019. There were 11 males and 4 females, with the age of (48.5±12.6)years (range, 22-67 years). All patients underwent emergency debridement in stage I, the major blood vessels, nerves and tendons were inspected and repaired, and the fracture ends were fixed by external fixator. There were different degrees of wounds necrosis, infection and bone defect after operation. After debridement in stage II, the soft tissue defects with the dimension of 10.0 cm×5.0 cm to 30.0 cm×8.0 cm were repaired with anterolateral thigh musculocutaneous flaps whose areas ranged from 10.5 cm×5.5 cm to 30.5 cm×8.5 cm. All donor areas of the musculocutaneous flaps were sutured directly in stage I. The healing of the donor areas and musculocutaneous flaps were observed within 2 weeks after operation. At the last follow-up, the shape and sensory recovery of the flap, healing of fractures and related complications were observed. The lower extremity functional scale (LEFS) was used to evaluate the injured limb function.Results:All patients were followed-up for 12-32 months [(22.0±5.8)months]. All donor areas were healed by first intention, leaving only linear scars. The musculocutaneous flaps survived completely in all patients. Partial necrosis of large area of musculocutaneous flap occurred in 2 patients, and healed after debridement and skin grafting. Another patient had vascular crisis after musculocutaneous flap operation and survived after the embolized vein repaired by contralateral great saphenous. At the last follow-up, the shape of flap recovered well, and the feeling partially recovered with the two-point discrimination of 18-26 mm. All fractures healed well, and there were no serious infection-related complications such as osteomyelitis. The LEFS score was 47-69 points [(59.0±9.5)points].Conclusion:Theexternal fixator combined with anterolateral thigh musculocutaneous flaps for treatment of Gustilo type IIIB/Copen tibiofibular fractures can better restore the appearance of soft tissue defect of the lower leg, and can effectively reduce the occurrence of severe infection-related complications.