L Dolan

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S Weinstein

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Scoliosis

To BrAIST or not to BrAIST: decisions and characteristics of 1131 patients eligible for the Bracing in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis Trial

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ORAL PRESENTATION Open Access
To BrAIST or not to BrAIST: decisions and
characteristics of 1131 patients eligible for the
Bracing in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis Trial
L Dolan*, S Weinstein, BrAIST Study Team
From 8th International Conference on Conservative Management of Spinal Deformities and SOSORT 2011
Annual Meeting
Barcelona, Spain. 19-21 May 2011
Background
BrAIST is a partially-randomized trial comparing the
outcomes of bracing and observation in children with
adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. The purpose of this
study is to evaluate 1) whether the BrAIST sample is
representative of the target population and 2) whether
the treatment arms are equivalent. We addressed these
questions by comparing baseline demographic, radio-
graphic and psychosocial characteristics between the
groups.
Materials and methods
Since April 2007, 1131 patients met eligibility criteria;
360 (32%) agreed to participate. There were no statisti-
cally significant differences between those who declined
and those who agreed to participate in terms of largest
Cobb angle, curve type, gender, or age. Blacks/African-
Americans were more likely to participate (50%) than
other racial groups (p<0.01).
Results
Of the 360, 219 (61%) entered into the bracing arm.
Before treatment, there were no statistically significant
differences in demographics, curve characteristics (Cobb
angle, curve type, rotation, kyphosis, lordosis), skeletal
maturity, general health, back pain and psychosocial
characteristics including body image and quality of life.
However, those who were very dissatisfied with their
current back condition were more likely to choose a
brace (73 vs. 51%, p<0.01).
Conclusions
BrAIST is still open to enrollment and these results are
preliminary. At this point, the sample appears represen-
tative of the target population of high-risk adolescents,
indicating BrAIST results can be generalized outside
this sample. Without complete randomization, the
equivalence of the two treatment arms is therefore not
guaranteed, but the fact that we found no significant dif-
ferences in this analysis provides some confidence for
minimal selection bias in the final results.
Published: 27 January 2012
doi:10.1186/1748-7161-7-S1-O23
Cite this article as: Dolan et al.: To BrAIST or not to BrAIST: decisions
and characteristics of 1131 patients eligible for the Bracing in
Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis Trial. Scoliosis 2012 7(Suppl 1):O23.
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University of Iowa, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Iowa City, USA
Dolan et al. Scoliosis 2012, 7(Suppl 1):O23
http://www.scoliosisjournal.com/content/7/S1/O23
© 2012 Dolan et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in
any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


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To BrAIST or not to BrAIST: decisions and characteristics of 1131 patients eligible for the Bracing in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis Trial

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