Tools for Objective Clinical Assessment of Pediatric Spinal Deformity and the Results of Surgical Intervention--Simultaneous Measurement of Sagittal and Coronal Balance and Symmetry With Digital Photography.

This project seeks to develop a standardized technique for simultaneous capturing bi-planar images of patients against a standard background with a grid that can be used later for the quantitative determination of global balance and thoracic symmetry.

We hypothesize that patients who are successfully managed with surgery will demonstrate an improvement in global balance and thoracic symmetry that can be accurately measured. This measurement station will be specifically developed to provide a standardized, reproducible means to compare clinical assessments of surgical and non-surgical outcomes, and establish normative data for comparison. This standardized tool can be established at multiple centers for use in multicenter trials.