Growing Spine Committee Update

Scott J. Luhmann, MD
Growing Spine Committee Chair

The Growing Spine Committee continues to be very active. The inaugural educational webinar for SRS was on December 12 on “Casting for Early-Onset Scoliosis – Why, When and How”. Chaired by Robert P. Huang, MD (Past Chair) and James O. Sanders, MD (Chair Elect), they led a star-studded panel of spine casting experts which included Dr. Sanders, Charles E. Johnston, MD; Jacques D’Astous, MD, and Peter F. Sturm, MD. With a significant amount of help from the SRS administrative staff, it was a resounding success with over 130 internet attendees from around the globe.  Kudos to all those who contributed!  The webinar was extremely well-received by the attendees and validated this as an effective educational tool for SRS.  The Growing Spine Committee is now developing additional topics for future webinars.

The Growing Spine Committee continues to work on enhancing the SRS website content and expanding the E-Text section of the growing spine (under the direction of Amer Samdani, MD, Chair of the E-Text Committee). 

Since FDA approval of the MAGEC device for Early-Onset Scoliosis (EOS), spine surgeons have embraced this novel device which enables non-surgical, painless distraction of the growing spine construct without anesthesia. Unfortunately, EOS surgeons have struggled on the appropriate coding and billing for this ground-breaking device. To this end Jeffrey Cassidy, MD, is developing a survey to be distributed to the SRS members who use the MAGEC device about their coding and billing practices.

Lastly, under the direction of Christina Hardesty, MD and Dr. Huang, a white paper on “Updated Techniques and Result for Early-Onset Scoliosis” is in process. The latest information from leading experts on growing rods, VEPTR, Shilla, vertebral stapling and tether will be assembled. Submission to Spine Deformity - The Official Journal of the Scoliosis Research Society, is planned for later this spring.

Chair: Scott J. Luhmann, MD Committee: Robert P. Huang, MD; Francisco Sanchez Perez-Grueso, MD; John G. Thometz, MD; Wael Alkasem, MD; Jeffrey A. Cassidy, MD; Mazda Farshad, MD, MPH; Hyoungmin Kim, MD, PhD; Moyo C. Kruyt, MD, PhD; Hideki Murakami, MD, PhD; Rolf B. Riise, MD; Denis Sakai, MD; Shoji Seki, MD, PhD; Shiau-Tzu Tzeng, MD; Nigel J. Price, MD; Amer F. Samdani, MD; James O. Sanders, MD; Andre Luis F. Andujar, MD; Teresa Bas, MD, PhD; Jeff B. Pawelek; Peter F. Sturm, MD; Ron El-Hawary, MD; Colin Nnadi, FRCS (Orth); Eric D. Shirley, MD