Thoracic facetectomy and bone grafting in the surgical treatment of adult idiopathic scoliosis.

A retrospective study of adult patients with surgically treated idiopathic scoliosis was carried out to determine the importance of thoracic facetectomy and bone grafting. The results indicate that failure to excise and bone graft the thoracic facets was not associated with a significant impairment of initial correction or loss of correction after a mean follow-up of 2 years. The incidence of pseudarthrosis was comparable to other series. It also was established that the use of Bobechko hooks without postoperative bracing gave satisfactory results.