Kyphotic Deformity in Patients Who Have a Myelomeningocele OPERATIVE TREATMENT AND LONG-TERM FOLLOWUP*

ABSTRACT: The results of resection of the lordotic segment cephalad to the apical vertebra of a kyphotic deformity in thirty-nine patients who had had a my-elomeningocele were reviewed retrospectively. The op-erations were performed between 1973 and 1984, when the patients were an average of six years and ten months old (range, one year and five months to twenty years old). The average duration of follow-up was eleven years and one month (range, five years and one month to seventeen years and four months). The average preoperative kyphosis was 111 degrees (range, 77 to 151 degrees) and the average postoperative ky-phosis was 40 degrees (range, 2 to 88 degrees). The preoperative deformity was reduced an average of 64 per cent (range, 0 to 98 per cent). At the latest follow