This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related articles  • Similar articles in JAMA  Topic Collections  • Pain  • Quality of Life  • Rehabilitation Medicine  • Alert me on articles by topic

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

To the Editor: Dr Weinstein and colleagues¹ found a wide range of long-term outcomes among a small, geographically localized cohort of adults with a childhood history of late-onset idiopathic scoliosis (LIS). I disagree, however, with their conclusion that there is "little physical impairment other than back pain and cosmetic concern." In addition to 4 deaths attributed to LIS, these individuals reported twice the incidence of chronic pain compared with control subjects, who were selected from very high-disability environments including hospital clinics.

Furthermore, the authors did not explore pulmonary disability. They did report, however, that a history of limited chest excursion was associated with reduced vital capacity, which in turn was correlated with recurrent pulmonary infections. They further reported that vital capacity remained reduced at the 30-year follow-up and that it was restricted to 2 cm or less in more than half of the cohort at the 50-year follow-up, suggesting substantial . . . [Full Text of this Article]

RELATED ARTICLES

Health and Function of Patients With Untreated Idiopathic Scoliosis—Reply
Stuart L. Weinstein
JAMA. 2003;289(20):2644-2645.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Health and Function of Patients With Untreated Idiopathic Scoliosis: A 50-Year Natural History Study
Stuart L. Weinstein, Lori A. Dolan, Kevin F. Spratt, Kirk K. Peterson, Mark J. Spoonamore, and Ignacio V. Ponseti
JAMA. 2003;289(5):559-567.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT