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©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Orthop. Dec 18, 2025; 16(12): 110510
Published online Dec 18, 2025. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v16.i12.110510
Published online Dec 18, 2025. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v16.i12.110510
Halo gravity traction for pediatric scoliosis and kyphoscoliosis: A review of current evidence and best practices
Meet A Jain, Arjun Dhawale, Md Zafar Iqbal, Bhushan Sagade, Department of Pediatric Orthopedics, Bai Jerbai Wadia Hospital for Children, Maharashtra 400012, Mumbai, India
Atif Naseem, Apurba Gorain, Abhay Nene, Department of Orthopedics, Lilavati Hospital and Research Centre, Maharashtra 400050, Mumbai, India
Co-corresponding authors: Meet A Jain and Arjun Dhawale.
Author contributions: Jain MA and Dhawale A jointly managed all pre-publication and post-publication communications and activities, thereby ensuring the accuracy and accountability of the published work; Jain MA, Iqbal MZ, Naseem A, Sagade B, and Gorain A were involved in the preparation of the manuscript; Jain MA, Iqbal MZ, and Naseem A performed the literature review; Dhawale A is the invited author and conceptualized the manuscript, along with manuscript editing; Nene A was involved in manuscript editing. Jain MA and Dhawale A contributed equally to this manuscript and are co- corresponding authors. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Meet A Jain, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Pediatric Orthopedics, Bai Jerbai Wadia Hospital for Children, Acharya Donde Marg, Parel, Maharashtra 400012, Mumbai, India. meetjain2295@gmail.com
Received: June 9, 2025
Revised: July 9, 2025
Accepted: October 20, 2025
Published online: December 18, 2025
Processing time: 192 Days and 17.6 Hours
Revised: July 9, 2025
Accepted: October 20, 2025
Published online: December 18, 2025
Processing time: 192 Days and 17.6 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Halo gravity traction (HGT) provides a safe and gradual approach to more severe scoliosis and kyphoscoliosis in the pediatric population, while decreasing the risk of surgery, as well as improving spinal flexibility, pulmonary function, and nutritional status. It minimizes the need for extensive procedures like vertebral column resection. Even though protocols do vary, there is initial evidence to support 3-11 weeks of traction, and to monitor carefully for pin-site complications as well as neurological complications for monitoring of HGT in children. Overall, HGT serves to improve surgical safety and or outcome for children with complex spinal deformities.