The study, Long-Term Outcomes of Operative Versus Nonoperative Treatment for Adult Symptomatic Lumbar Scoliosis (ASLS): Durability of Treatment Effects and Impact of Related Serious Adverse Events Through 8-Year Follow-Up, was published in the Journal on April 2, 2025.
According to the abstract, “In this as-treated analysis of combined randomized and observational cohorts of 286 enrolled patients from an ASLS study, operative treatment was associated with significantly greater improvement in patient-reported outcome measures compared with nonoperative treatment at eight years. The favorable outcomes of operative over nonoperative treatment at eight years remained at least as favorable as at two years and at five years after treatment.
Results suggest that the significantly greater improvement of operative vs nonoperative treatment for ASLS was durably maintained at eight-year follow-up.”
This study was also the recipient of the prestigious Russell Hibbs Award at the 2024 Annual Meeting in Barcelona. The Russell A. Hibbs Society was formed in 1947 as an international travel club for continuing medical education and furthering orthopaedic knowledge. Hibbs Society holds an educational meeting at the SRS Annual Meeting to address difficult and complex issues that do not lend themselves to the usual kind of scientific presentations.
Listen to the interview with some of the paper authors on Scoliosis Dialogues: An SRS Podcast.
To bring the study to its full eight-year follow-up allowing for the JAMA publication, funding was provided by the SRS and several of the SRS industry partners and the International Spine Study Group. The SRS community and the study investigators appreciate the additional investments provided above and beyond their support of SRS, made by Globus Medical, K2M/Stryker Spine, Medtronic, NuVasive, and Zimmer Biomet.
According to their website, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) is a peer-reviewed medical journal published by the American Medical Association. It covers various aspects of the medical field and has been in publication since 1883. JAMA is one of the most widely circulated medical journals in the world.
About Scoliosis Research Society
The Scoliosis Research Society is a non-profit, professional organization, made up of physicians and allied health personnel. Our primary focus is on providing continuing medical education for health care professionals and on funding/supporting research in spinal deformities. Founded in 1966, SRS has gained recognition as the world's premier spine deformity society. Please visit www.srs.org for further information. Also follow us on X, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok and Instagram.