Scoliosis circa 2000: radiologic imaging perspective. II. Treatment and follow-up

Imaging of back pain in children

While back pain presents less frequently in children than in adults, it still poses a significant clinical challenge with respect to making a firm diagnosis and developing an effective treatment plan. When children have back pain and medical attention is sought, an underlying pathology is usually suspected. Pediatric patients are evaluated, first, with a complete clinical history and examination and, second, by an imaging work-up that is based on initial findings, including the child's age and size, signs and symptoms, and suspected etiology. This article describes 1) the epidemiology of back pain in children, 2) the imaging work-up used, and 3) the correlation of imaging findings with disease entities that may cause back pain in the pediatric patient. The list of diseases giving rise to back pain is not meant to be exhaustive but rather reflective of the most commonly identified pathologies and disorders among young children and adolescents, from athletic injuries to lethal cancers.

Imaging in scoliosis: what, why and how?

Scoliosis may be a spinal manifestation of underlying disease and although most cases of scoliosis are idiopathic, imaging plays a very important role in determining the underlying aetiology and in monitoring the changes of the deformity that take place with growth. As a clinical problem scoliosis may present directly to the radiology department through a primary healthcare referral, or it may be referred from the paediatric, orthopaedic, spinal and neurosurgical hospital services. Growth affects all types of scoliosis irrespective of cause. There are no reliable predetermined algorithmic steps in the management of scoliosis, and treatment decisions require the inclusion of multiple extrinsic (e.g age, menarche) and intrinsic (curve magnitude, vertebral anomaly) factors. It is important to remember that most of what is known about curve behaviour and its progression applies to idiopathic scoliosis, and it is inappropriate to apply these criteria to the other specific types of scoliosis. It is imperative that radiation techniques are used judiciously to minimize the radiation burden. Although magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has had a significant impact in the understanding of the scoliotic deformity, it is still evolving and it may well eventually play a very important role in uncovering the underlying aetiology of 'idiopathic' scoliosis.