Abstract
Complex spinal deformities can cause pain, neurological symptoms and imbalance (sagittal and/or coronal), severely impairing patients’ quality of life and causing disability. Their treatment has always represented a tough challenge: prior to the introduction of modern internal fixation systems, the only option was an arthrodesis to prevent worsening of the deformity. Then, the introduction of pedicle screws allowed the surgeons to perform powerful corrective manoeuvres, distributing forces over multiple levels, to which eventually associate osteotomies. In treating flexible coronal deformities, in-ternal fixation and corrective manoeuvres may be sufficient: the combination of high density pedicle screws and direct vertebral rotation revolutionized surgical treatment of scoliosis.
However, spinal osteotomies are needed for correcting complex rigid deformities; the type of osteot-omy must be chosen according to the aetiology, type and apex of the deformity. When dealing with large radius deformities, spread over multiple levels and without fusion, multiple posterior column os-teotomies such as Smith-Petersen and Ponte (asymmetric, when treating scoliosis) can be performed, dissipating the correction over many levels. Conversely, the management of a sharp, angulated de-formity that involves a few vertebral levels and/or with bony fusion, requires more aggressive 3 col-umn osteotomies such as Pedicle Subtraction Osteotomies (PSO), Bone Disc Bone Osteotomies (BDBO) or Vertebral Column Resection (VCR). Sometimes the deformity is so severe that cannot be corrected with only one osteotomy: in this scenario, multilevel osteotomies can be performed.
