Congenital Kyphoscoliosis

What a name, huh? That’s the official diagnosis from the specialist. We went to the pediatric orthopedic surgeon. We had xrays of the baby’s back taken from a laying down position and a side laying position. He did so good. Even with all the prodding and pushing both of the doctor’s did, he didn’t have any issues for the first 1 1/2 hours we were there.

Kyphoscoliosis is a combination of kyphosis and scoliosis. Both of them are curvatures of the spine, but on different planes. Congenital means present at birth. Kyphosis is more serious than the scoliosis is. The doctor told us that 1/3 of these cases never progress or require any treatment. 1/3 of them progress really slow and generally don’t require treatment either. Then there’s the other 1/3 which progresses quicker and requires treatment, either through bracing or surgery.

The doctor said he didn’t think JJ would have issues walking, that he should probably meet or exceed his developmental milestones easily. Another thing is that he is missing 4 ribs on his left side. His current treatment is simply going to be observation. We’ll go back in 6 months or so and see if it has changed.