Innovation and Outcomes in Pediatric Spine Care

Dear Colleagues,

Pediatric spine disorders represent complex clinical challenges, requiring a delicate balance between deformity correction, growth preservation, and long-term functional outcomes. Recent advances in imaging, navigation, robotics, biomaterials, and surgical instrumentation have expanded treatment possibilities and improved safety.

Concurrently, attention to non-surgical aspects of care—including patient-reported outcomes, quality of life, complication prevention, and long-term follow-up—has shifted the treatment focus from radiographic correction alone to comprehensive, patient-centered management. Multidisciplinary care pathways and registry-based, data-driven decision-making are increasingly informing precision and value-based approaches.

Despite progress, fundamental questions remain: how can deformity correction be optimized while safeguarding growth, which technologies improve outcomes long-term, and how do early interventions influence adult spinal health?

This Special Issue invites the submission of original research, reviews, and translational studies that advance knowledge in pediatric spine care, integrating surgical innovation with holistic, evidence-based approaches. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following: growth-friendly techniques, advanced technology-assisted surgery, patient-reported outcome measures, risk stratification, long-term follow-up, transition to adult care, registry analyses, biomechanics, and value-based care models.

We look forward to your contributions to this collection, which aims to define the next generation of pediatric spine management and improve patient-centered outcomes worldwide.

Acknowledgment

We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to Dott. Pulici for his support and invaluable contributions to this Special Issue. His clinical expertise and insights have been instrumental in shaping the project and promoting its reach within the scientific and clinical community

Dr. Fabio Zaina
Prof. Dr. Angelo Gabriele Aulisa
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Children is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• spine
• spinal deformity
• growth modulation
• robotics
• patient-reported outcomes
• multidisciplinary care
• precision surgery
• scoliosis
• spondylolisthesis
• sagittal plane alteration