Pediatric Orthopedic Team Argues for Use of the Sanders Classification for AIS

Columbia Orthopedics providers Michael G. Vitale, MD, MPH and Benjamin D. Roye, MD, MPH along with Director of Clinical Research Hiroko Matsumoto were published in Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics. Their paper – "High Risk of Mismatch Between Sanders and Risser Staging in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis: Are We Guiding Treatment Using the Wrong Classification?" – argues for using the Sanders classification for identifying adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) instead of the traditional Risser Staging.

Determining a patient's skeletal maturity is a crucial guidepost for decision making related to treatment of AIS. This study examined 165 consecutive patients to reach its conclusion that the Sanders classification system leads to better treatment guidance, while Risser staging resulted mistreatment of 25% of patients, with a majority of those being undertreated.

For more about this study, read the abstract here.