The association of scoliosis with congenital heart disease
It has been known for many years that there is an increased incidence of scoliosis in children with congenital heart disease. Sometimes when a congenital abnormality affects one part of the body (the heart) it can affect others (the kidneys, stomach and spine). Thus we commonly see congenital spinal deformities in association with congenital heart disease. However there is a much higher incidence of the ordinary “idiopathic” type of scoliosis (that we usually see in our children) in patients who have congenital heart disease and it is this aspect that we are going to investigate. Previous publications have suggested that the more severe types of congenital heart disease which produce “blue babies” have a higher incidence of scoliosis but other publications have not found this relationship.
Another of our “Greek connections” Mr Terry Tsiridis who is Professor Giannoudis’ Senior Lecturer and Consultant Trauma Surgeon, has a professorial colleague, Professor Michael Gatzoulis (another Greek), at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London which specialises in heart and respiratory disease in children. They have a database of 5,000 children with congenital heart disease and, of course, have diagnosed their clinical type of heart disease very specifically. Importantly, all these children have had a number of chest xrays from which the shape of the spine can be determined. Therefore we intend to look at the chest xrays of these 5,000 children and to categorise definitively the incidence and type of associated scoliosis. With our modern electronic radiological techniques these measurements of curve size and direction etc can be made on screen.
Nobody knows precisely what is the cause of scoliosis, although our Unit in