Shanghai doctors set record with curved spine surgery

Shanghai doctors set a world record after performing surgery on a 13-year-old girl who had an extremely curved spine due to a rare disease.

The surgery, at Xinhua Hospital, corrected Huang Mengyuan's 176-degree curve of the spine by 53 percent, which will greatly improve her life quality and reduce pressure on her breathing from the deformed spine.

The surgery set a record for correcting the biggest degree of spinal curve in the world, hospital doctors said on Monday.

The girl suffers from spinal muscular atrophy, or SMA, a rare neuromuscular disease which seriously impacts life quality. There are nearly 30,000 SMA patients in China, with about 1,500 new cases each year.

Children with the disease usually die between 2 and 10 years old. Even sufferers with relatively mild cases can experience problems with their bones, muscles, lungs and heart when they grow up.

Almost all patients with SMA have curved spines and the condition typically deteriorates after patients enter puberty. The curved spine can press the chest and many people die due to respiratory complications, doctors said.

Huang's curved spine condition became increasingly serious from last year, along with her heart and lung function.

Her parents took her to Xinhua Hospital and decided to risk the complicated surgery considering the girl's dreadful life quality.

Doctors held detailed discussions and came up with different plans for the risky surgery, which took place on June 10.

Post-surgery checks confirmed that Huang's curved spine has been greatly corrected. She will be discharged on Tuesday.

According to Dr Yang Junlin, from Xinhua's spine center, most SMA patients can receive surgery to restore the condition for better effect when the curve reaches 60 degrees.

SMA is an inherited disease. There is one genetic carrier of SMA in every 40 people.

"It is important to undergo a pre-pregnancy test for early identification and couples carrying SMA genes can undergo in vitro fertilization by selecting healthy embryos for transplant to avoid giving birth to sick children," Yang said.

Ti Gong