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Vertebral malformations and back pain
Medical expert of the article
Last reviewed: 08.07.2025
Symptoms of vertebral malformations may be absent, and the malformation itself may be accidentally detected during radiological examination. The term vertebral malformations is used in cases where the main cause is a vertebral anomaly.
Only a few medical institutions in the world have sufficiently extensive experience in the treatment and dynamic observation of children with vertebral anomalies and congenital spinal deformities. The experience of Twin Cities Spine Center, MN, USA, Novosibirsk Center for Spinal Pathology, and St. Petersburg Pediatric Medical Academy, reflected in the literature, allowed to fundamentally change the attitude of most orthopedists to congenital spinal deformities. Based on extensive clinical material, it was proven that more than half of children have these deformities in the first year of life, in 30% of cases already at this age reaching grade III-IV. By the age of three, severe congenital malformations of the vertebrae are observed in more than 50% of patients. The absence of progression of congenital spinal deformities in dynamics is observed only in 18% of cases. Considering that in the total number of spinal deformities, the share of congenital ones, according to different authors, ranges from 2% to 11%, the theoretically calculated frequency of congenital spinal deformities may exceed 1 case per 100 children. Finally, congenital spinal deformities should be considered among the most socially significant diseases due to the fact that in a high percentage of cases they are accompanied by concomitant spinal cord defects (myelodysplasia) and secondary myelopathy.
Most classifications of congenital vertebral defects are based on the X-ray anatomical picture and include various variants of three embryogenetic types of anomaly - disturbances in the formation, segmentation and fusion of paired rudiments of the vertebral bodies.
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