Editorial comment to article: Pediatric Thoracic SCIWORA After Back Bend During Dance Practice: A Retrospective Case Series and Analysis of Trauma Mechanisms

Excerpt

This is an excellent paper: well-organized, well-written, and well-illustrated. It describes a new mechanism of thoracic SCIWORA in young children that, to the best of my knowledge, has not been postulated before. The authors’ clinical documentation of the mode of deterioration, the MRI changes, and especially the two cases with spinal cord DTI data are most convincing. Thus, this is an important category of spinal cord injury in children that is not only of great scientific significance but also one that generates, or should generate, public scrutiny into certain drastic dance and exercise regimens imposed on young children, seemingly sponsored by community curricula and bolstered by national pride in some countries to showcase their burgeoning athletes. It is heartening to see this paper being published, in no better journal than the international Child’s Nervous System. …