Growth-friendly spine surgery for scoliosis

This case study highlights how close monitoring and timely intervention with the VerteGlide system corrected rapidly progressive neuromuscular scoliosis in an 11-year-old patient while preserving continued spinal growth.

Author: Sara O. Thompson

Published: August 5, 2026

Reviewed by Kent L. Walker, D.O., pediatric spine surgeon and pediatric orthopedic surgeon with Norton Children’s Leatherman Spine; and Natalie R. Jennette, APRN, nurse practitioner with Norton Children’s Leatherman Spine

The patient

Patient is an 11-year-old boy presenting with diplegic cerebral palsy, neuromuscular scoliosis, autism and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. He already had been through a course of treatment with another spine surgeon, including a thoracolumbosacral orthosis (TLSO) brace and Schroth method physical therapy. His mother took him to Kent L. Walker, D.O., pediatric orthopedic spine surgeon at Norton Children’s Leatherman Spine, affiliated with the UofL School of Medicine, on Feb. 25, 2025, hoping to get a second opinion and get ahead of what was coming next. He was skeletally immature, and his family knew surgery likely was in his future — the question was when.

The challenge

At that first appointment, the boy’s spinal curve measured 46 degrees. Based on his parents’ height, the curve was likely to keep progressing.

Surgery was not a recommended course of action at the time. The boy was too skeletally immature for many procedures, and because his scoliosis was neuromuscular in nature, his curve was not flexible enough for other options. Dr. Walker and the family agreed to continue TLSO bracing, increase wear time to 16 hours a day and restart Schroth therapy — with a clear benchmark: If the curve passed 50 degrees, surgery would be considered. Follow-up was set for six months out.

The patient’s physical therapist, Ron Lasley, P.T., DPT, flagged that the brace was rubbing on the boy’s hip and needed adjustment sooner than planned. At a June 3, 2025, visit, the boy had grown 3 inches, and imaging showed his curve had progressed to 55 degrees. The conversation shifted from bracing to a growth-friendly spine surgery.

By late August, the picture had changed again. At a presurgical appointment on Aug. 26, his mother noticed his hips looked uneven, and he’d started having back pain. Final X-rays before surgery showed the curve had reached 72 degrees.

*Left to right: Feb. 25, 2025, 46 degrees; June 3, 2025, 55 degrees; Aug. 26, 2025, 72 degrees*

The solution

Dr. Walker and the family settled on a posterior spinal fusion at the apex of the deformity — located at T8 — paired with guided growth above and below it. The plan called for instrumentation from T6 to T9 or T10, with Ponte osteotomies and percutaneous instrumentation extending above and below the fusion.

Because the boy still had significant growing to do, the surgical team used the VerteGlide system. Instead of locking the spine in place, VerteGlide allows the growing spinal column to glide along two rods inserted into the back, so the vertebrae and spinal column can continue lengthening without the straightening rods impeding growth.

The boy completed pre-admission testing on Aug. 22, 2025, including blood work, a chest X-ray, an electrocardiogram and other screening to clear him for anesthesia. On Sept. 12, 2025, Dr. Walker and Richard E. McCarthy, M.D., pediatric orthopedic surgeon with Norton Children’s Orthopedics of Louisville, affiliated with the UofL School of Medicine, performed a T6 to T9 posterior spinal fusion with instrumentation from T3 to L3, using the VerteGlide system. The patient spent three nights in the hospital and went home with spinal precautions: no bending, no twisting and no lifting more than 5 pounds.

The result

The boy returned for outpatient follow-up four weeks after surgery, then again at three months and six months. At the six-month visit, imaging showed the vertebrae gliding along the rods as expected — lengthening with him as he continues to grow, while the rods still provide the support his spine needs.