[Source:  Medical X-Press]

Fusion surgery has been the long-standing treatment for people with scoliosis—a side-to-side curve of the spine. But other options have become available—including vertebral body tethering for children with scoliosis.

“Vertebral tethering is a new tool in the tool kit for the treatment of scoliosis,” says A. Noelle Larson, M.D., a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and expert in scoliosis surgery.

Its cause is unknown, but scoliosis affects an estimated 1 in 300 people worldwide. A spinal curve greater than 10 degrees is defined as scoliosis. Severe scoliosis that requires treatment is more common in women.

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