The impacts of waiting for surgical correction of Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis and its repercussions for publicly funded health systems: systematic review.

purposeTo investigate, through a systematic review, the impact of the waiting time for Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS) surgical correction from the point of view of deformity evolution, treatment cost, and quality of life.

methodsPubMed, Embase, LILACS, SciELO, Scopus, Web of Science, LIVIVO, and Cochrane Library databases were searched by two researchers to select the articles. The eligibility criteria were: Patients diagnosed with AIS with indication for surgical correction and submitted to waiting lists until treatment. The risks of bias were evaluated using the Risk Of Bias In Non-randomized Studies-Interventions (ROBINS-I) tool, and the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) system was used to classify the level of the evidence for each outcome. The summary of the available evidence is presented in a narrative synthesis.

resultsSix observational studies were included. In a Canadian study, the primary outcome was the need for additional spine surgery in patients who had to wait more than three months due to spine deformity progression. American researchers presented a sample of premenarcheal and skeletally immature patients with AIS showing increased Cobb angle and attributed this to a six-month waiting for the surgical treatment. Another study included 177 patients with AIS with a mean waiting time of 225.7 days. There was a worsening average of 7.7° ± 8.6° in Cobb angle, and there was a change in surgical plan in 28 patients, which increased surgical time. Studies that evaluated the treatment cost showed significantly higher mean costs in those who waited longer than six months. Regarding the quality of life, while waiting for surgery, a retrospective study found that patients who underwent surgery earlier showed better results in a questionnaire that assessed their quality of life compared to those who were still waiting.

conclusionObservational studies show that, in individuals who are on waiting lists for AIS surgery, there is a worsening of the spinal deformity (substantial evidence), an increasing cost of treatment (moderate evidence) and it may negatively impact patients' quality of life (insufficient evidence). Performing better methodological quality studies to investigate these outcomes can violate good research practices since randomized clinical trials on this subject have ethical limitations to be carried out.

trial registrationThe authors declare that the systematic review protocol was registered at the international prospective register of systematic reviews (PROSPERO), CRD42020212134, and it was accepted for publication.