• Murat Şakir Ekşi, Emel Ece Özcan-Ekşi, Sibel Emilie Huet, Taha Dinç, Berk Barış Özmen, and Mehmet Akif Akçal.
• Department of Neurosurgery, School of Medicine, Acıbadem Mehmet Ali Aydınlar University, Istanbul, Turkey. Electronic address: muratsakireksi@gmail.com.
• World Neurosurg. 2020 Mar 1; 135: e527-e540.

BackgroundSchool scoliosis screening programs (SSSPs) are widely used for reporting the prevalence and improving the awareness of scoliosis. Thus, scoliosis could be prevented and/or treated in a timely manner. However, mild scoliosis (10°-20°) could be missed in SSSPs. Previously obtained plain chest radiographs could be used as an adjunct to SSSPs to detect the exact prevalence of scoliosis. In this study, we aimed to detect the prevalence of thoracic scoliosis in adolescents in Turkey using posteroanterior chest radiographs.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional radiologic study evaluating plain chest radiographs in adolescents who visited the emergency department or outpatient clinics at a community-based hospital. We also reviewed the literature regarding scoliosis screening in adolescents using the PubMed/MEDLINE search engine.ResultsWe included 1065 adolescents. Thoracic scoliosis was detected on plain posteroanterior chest radiographs in 10.4% of the adolescents. The prevalence of thoracic scoliosis was significantly larger in females compared with males (12.3% vs. 8.6%; P = 0.047). We retrieved 140 articles regarding scoliosis screening in adolescents from the literature. Each continent had different scoliosis prevalence (according to Cobb angle ≥10° verified on a radiograph).ConclusionsSSSPs help detection of the prevalence of scoliosis and the factors associated with scoliosis in adolescents. However, patients with small-angle curves could be missed in SSSPs. Our results showed that plain posteroanterior chest radiographs could be used as an adjunct to SSSPs to accurately detect prevalence of scoliosis in adolescents.Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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