2002 The Lenke Classification of Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis Medscape

Description: Reports of papers presented to the 17th Annual Meeting of the North American Spine Society
Spinal Deformity Update: The Lenke Classification of Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis CME Disclosures Thomas J. Errico, MD Gerard K. Jeong, MD Introduction The selection of fusion levels for spinal arthrodesis remains one of the most critical elements of preoperative planning in the surgical management of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. Proper selection of fusion levels allows the spinal surgeon to achieve the preoperative goals of curve correction, maintenance of truncal balance, and preservation of motion segments. As there has been an increasing recognition and understanding of scoliosis as a 3-dimensional deformity occurring in the coronal, sagittal, and axial planes, a more comprehensive classification system has been introduced by Lenke and colleagues[1] to determine the extent of spinal arthrodesis. The Lenke classification system consists of 3 components: curve type (1-6), lumbar spine modifier (A, B, C), and thoracic sagittal modifier (-, N, +).