Magnetically controlled growing rods: a less invasive treatment for early onset scoliosis

We would like to thank AME Medical Journal for inviting us to write an editorial comment on the recently published article by Lebon et al. in the European Spine Journal entitled “Magnetically controlled growing rod in early onset scoliosis: a 30-case multicenter study” (1). Historically reports on spine-based distraction techniques such as traditional growing rods (TGR) were dominantly from North America. The trend of reports on the newer devices and techniques including magnetically controlled growing rods (MCGR) has recently shifted more towards European countries mainly to the UK as well as Hong Kong where the approvals were earlier than USA. It is very encouraging to see other countries are now involved in trying MCGR and reporting their findings, which eventually will benefit the early onset scoliosis (EOS) patients all around the world. This report by Lebon et al. in a multicenter setting in France is a very promising step in line with global popularization of MCGR and we would like to congratulate our French colleagues for undertaking this study.