Classification of Thoracic Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis

Abstract

To Editor: We read Intraobserver and Interobserver Reliability of the Classification of Thoracic Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (80-A, 1097-1106, Aug. 1998), by Lenke et al. purpose of that study was to determine the interobserver and intraobserver reliability of the King classification of thoracic adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. King et al.3 classified thoracic curves in a paper entitled The Selection of Fusion Levels in Thoracic Idiopathic Scoliosis. Since the King classification system deals solely with thoracic scoliosis, we fail to understand why, in order to consider the reliability of the King classification, parameters such as the lumbar curve, the thoracolumbar curve, the double-major curve, and others were introduced in the trial. In our opinion, only thoracic curves should have been examined. Furthermore, on the basis of the work by Barr et al.1, Ibrahim et al.2, Lenke et al.6, Lonstein7, and Richards8, there is great terminological confusion between a double-major curve and the King type-I curve, and we believe that the term double-major curve should not have been included in the study. Finally, in the 1994 study by King5 …