How socioeconomic, racial, and insurance disparities affect teenagers who need scoliosis surgery

Delaware Public Media

Teenagers who are Black and of lower socioeconomic status have major complications after surgery for the most common type of scoliosis.

That’s according to a new study published by Nemours Children’s Health, which also found the same black and low-income teenage patients are more likely to return to the Emergency Department within 90 days of surgery.

Delaware Public Media’s Joe Irizarry is joined this week by Dr. Suken Shah – the study’s senior author and pediatric orthopedic surgeon at Nemours Children’s Health – to learn more about the disparities in scoliosis surgery.