Jason Pui-Yin Cheung

The University of Hong Kong | HKU · Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology

Purpose Vertebral body tethering (VBT) is a new growth-modulating surgery for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) requiring a distinct skillset and intraoperative setup. We compared perioperative details and outcomes of VBTs performed in a public pediatric orthopedic hospital and a general private hospital setting. Methods We identified all pati...

Aims Developmental cervical spinal stenosis (DcSS) is a well-known predisposing factor for degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) but there is a lack of consensus on its definition. This study aims to define DcSS based on MRI, and its multilevel characteristics, to assess the prevalence of DcSS in the general population, and to evaluate the presenc...

Metastasis frequently targets bones, where cancer cells from the primary tumour migrate to the bone marrow, initiating new tumour growth. Not only is bone the most common site for metastasis, but it also often marks the first site of metastatic recurrence. Despite causing over 90% of cancer-related deaths, effective treatments for bone metastasis a...

Preoperative spine flexibility plays a key role in the intraoperative treatment course of severe scoliosis. In this cohort study, we examined the effects of 5 day inpatient scoliosis-specific exercise (SSE) on the spinal flexibility of patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis before surgery. A total of 65 patients were analyzed. These patients...

Ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL) is a common cause of degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) in Asian populations. Characterization of OPLL progression following laminoplasty remains limited in the literature. 29 patients with OPLL received cervical laminoplasty and a minimum of 2-years follow-up. Clinical and radiological...

Background The prognosis of surgically treated subjects with early onset scoliosis (EOS) into adulthood has been lacking. We aimed to investigate the patients’ perspectives on satisfaction with surgical treatment. Methodology We included all surgical candidates with EOS who had undergone index spinal surgery for scoliosis correction between 2009 a...

In clinical settings, the screening, diagnosis, and monitoring of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) typically involve physical or radiographic examinations. However, physical examinations are subjective, while radiographic examinations expose patients to harmful radiation. Consequently, we propose a pipeline that can accurately determine scolio...

Purpose Magnetically Controlled Growing Rod (MCGR) allows frequent outpatient rod lengthening when treating Early Onset Scoliosis (EOS) patients. But there is lack of expert consensus on the optimal MCGR lengthening interval. EOS 24-Item Questionnaire (EOSQ) is validated for assessing health-related quality of life (HrQOL), family burden, and satis...

This study proposes an approach for error correction in clinical radiology reports, leveraging large language models (LLMs) and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) techniques. The proposed framework employs internal and external retrieval mechanisms to extract relevant medical entities and relations from the report and external knowledge sources....

This paper describes our submission to the MEDIQA-CORR 2024 shared task for automatically detecting and correcting medical errors in clinical notes. We report results for three methods of few-shot In-Context Learning (ICL) augmented with Chain-of-Thought (CoT) and reason prompts using a large language model (LLM). In the first method, we manually a...

Importance Lack of evidence and consensus for brace weaning protocol in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) results in clinicians prescribing gradual weaning in the hope of avoiding curve deterioration after weaning. However, gradual weaning contributes to prolonged brace wear, which can affect spinal stiffness and health-related quality of life...

Congenital scoliosis (CS), affecting approximately 0.5 to 1 in 1,000 live births, is commonly caused by congenital vertebral malformations (CVMs) arising from aberrant somitogenesis or somite differentiation. While Wnt/ß-catenin signaling has been implicated in somite development, the function of Wnt/planar cell polarity (Wnt/PCP) signaling in this...

OBJECTIVE: To summarize the development and validation of machine learning (ML) models using data from the first clinical visit to predict ensuing curve progression in individuals with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). DESIGN: Systematic review. LITERATURE SEACRH: Five databases were searched from inception to 31 March 2023. STUDY SELECTION...

Simple Summary Total hip arthroplasty is a well-established orthopaedic procedure, the use of which is on the increase worldwide. Since implants used in arthroplasty are usually made of metals including cobalt, chromium and titanium. These metals have since been classified as potentially carcinogenic and may cause cancers in humans. This retrospect...

Aims This systematic review aims to identify 3D predictors derived from biplanar reconstruction, and to describe current methods for improving curve prediction in patients with mild adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. Methods A comprehensive search was conducted by three independent investigators on MEDLINE, PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane Libra...

Study Design A retrospective cohort study. Objective To evaluate the mid-term effect of intervertebral disc degeneration (DD) in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) patients who underwent pedicle screw instrumentation (PSI) and rod derotation (RD) with direct vertebral rotation (DVR). Summary of Background Data Posterior spinal fusion is a main...

Objectives (1) Compare the cross-sectional thickness (CST) and shear wave speed (SWS) of paraspinal muscles (PSM) in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) with and without curve progression; (2) investigate the relationship between CST/SWS and radiographic characteristics in AIS with curve progression; (3) compare the CST/SWS between AIS and non-sc...

Aims: To systematically evaluate whether bracing can effectively achieve curve regression in patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS), and to identify any predictors of curve regression after bracing. Methods: Two independent reviewers performed a comprehensive literature search in PubMed, Ovid, Web of Science, Scopus, and Cochrane Li...

Objective Using whole-spine sagittal T2 magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) we aimed to compare the severity and prevalence of disc degeneration (DD) in axial spondyloarthritis (SpA) patients versuss the general population, and to determine any association between spinal inflammation, structural changes, mobility and DD among SpA patients. Methods Tw...

Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is a common and progressive spinal deformity in children that exhibits striking sexual dimorphism, with girls at more than fivefold greater risk of severe disease compared to boys. Despite its medical impact, the molecular mechanisms that drive AIS are largely unknown. We previously defined a female-specific AI...

Background The Proximal Femur Maturity Index (PFMI) can be used to assess skeletal maturity on existing whole-spine radiographs without additional radiation. However, the relationship between the PFMI at the initiation of bracing for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) and subsequent curve progression remains unknown. This study aimed to investig...

Purpose To explore the stressors, coping strategies, and mental health of adolescents diagnosed with idiopathic scoliosis. Design and methods This study adopted a descriptive qualitative study design. Twelve participants were recruited from a local non-government organization in Hong Kong. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect data...

Simple Summary Although primary bone cancer makes up only 1% of worldwide cancer cases diagnosed annually, the bone is the most common site of metastasis for tumours of the breast, prostate and lung. Once a tumour has metastasised to the bone, treatment is predominantly palliative. Though metastasis is the main cause of mortality in cancer patients...

Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is a common and progressive spinal deformity in children that exhibits striking sexual dimorphism, with girls at more than five-fold greater risk of severe disease compared to boys. Despite its medical impact, the molecular mechanisms that drive AIS are largely unknown. We previously defined a female-specific A...

Purpose To compare the clinical effectiveness of reduction and fusion with in situ fusion in the management of patients with degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis (DLS). Methods The systematic review was conducted following the PRISMA guidelines. Relevant studies were identified from PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Cochrane Library, ClinicalTrials.gov, an...

Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is a common and progressive spinal deformity in children that exhibits striking sexual dimorphism, with girls at more than five-fold greater risk of severe disease compared to boys. Despite its medical impact, the molecular mechanisms that drive AIS are largely unknown. We previously defined a female-specific A...

Background: Although back pain may be present in subjects with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS), its natural history is unknown. Therefore, this study evaluated the incidence of back pain in scoliotic adolescents longitudinally. Methods: This retrospective analysis examined prospectively collected pain subscale data of the Scoliosis Research...

Background Context. Children with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) may show asymmetrical paraspinal muscle characteristics. Purpose. To summarize the evidence regarding: (1) the associations between various paraspinal muscle characteristics and spinal curvature; (2) whether paraspinal muscle properties significantly differed between children w...

The Cobb angle (CA) serves as the principal method for assessing spinal deformity, but manual measurements of the CA are time-consuming and susceptible to inter- and intra-observer variability. While learning-based methods, such as SpineHRNet+, have demonstrated potential in automating CA measurement, their accuracy can be influenced by the severit...

Knee and hip osteoarthritis are common disabling conditions globally. Although numerous international clinical practice guidelines exist to guide physiotherapy management, not all recom- mendations issued from these guidelines can be translated to other contexts without considering the cultural acceptability and clinical implementability of targete...

Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is the most common form of spinal deformity affecting millions of adolescents worldwide, but it lacks a defined theory of etiopathogenesis. As such, treatment of AIS is limited to bracing and/or invasive surgery post onset. Pre-onset diagnosis or preventive treatment remains unavailable. Here we performed a gen...

Objectives Psychosocial interventions can improve teenagers' self-esteem, mental health and bracing compliance. There is a need to compile available evidence of psychosocial care in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. This systematic review aimed to identify and evaluate the effects of existing interventional studies of psychosocial care for the adole...

Study Design Retrospective observational study. Objectives The prediction of curve progression in patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) remains an unresolved area in orthopedic surgery. To make a rapid meaningful prediction, easily accessible multi-dimensional data at the patient’s first consultation should be used. Current studies u...

The Italian Spine Youth Quality of Life (ISYQOL) is a validated health-related quality of life (HRQOL) questionnaire for teenagers with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). We culturally- adapted ISYQOL to traditional Chinese (ISYQOL-TC) and then recruited 133 conservatively treated teenagers with AIS to complete the ISYQOL-TC and the Chinese ver...

Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is a common and progressive spinal deformity in children that exhibits striking sexual dimorphism, with girls at more than five-fold greater risk of severe disease compared to boys. Despite its medical impact, the molecular mechanisms that drive AIS are largely unknown. We previously defined a female-specific A...

Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is a common and progressive spinal deformity in children that exhibits striking sexual dimorphism, with girls at more than five-fold greater risk of severe disease compared to boys. Despite its medical impact, the molecular mechanisms that drive AIS are largely unknown. We previously defined a female-specific A...

Introduction Asymmetry in paraspinal muscle activities is observed in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis and may be of value for predicting curve progression. We have reported the effects of the surface electromyography biofeedback posture training program in improving the symmetry of paraspinal muscle activities and reducing the curve progression of...

Study design: This study adopted a prospective cohort study design. Purpose: This study aimed to examine electromyogram (EMG) discrepancy in paravertebral muscle activity and scoliosis progression, determine how vertebral morphology and EMG discrepancy evolve during scoliosis progression, and identify differences in EMG activity between individu...

Hypothesis: Back pain in conservatively treated idiopathic scoliosis subjects can be predicted by factors during adolescence. Study Design: Retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data. Introduction: Back pain occurs commonly in adults and is multifactorial in nature. This study aims to assess the prevalence of back pain during adulthoo...

Background Back pain occurs commonly in adults and is multifactorial in nature. This study aimed to assess the prevalence and intensity of back pain during young adulthood in subjects with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS), as well as factors that may be associated with its prognosis. Methods Subjects with AIS aged 20–39 treated conservatively...

Background and objective: Adjacent segment disease (ASD) is a well-known complication after interbody fusion. Revision surgery is necessary for symptomatic ASD to further decompress and fix the affected segment. However, no optimal construct is accepted as a standard in treating ASD. The purpose of this study was to compare the biomechanical effec...

Importance: Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is the most common pediatric spinal disorder. Routine physical examinations by trained personnel are critical to diagnose severity and monitor curve progression in AIS. In the presence of concerning malformation, radiographs are necessary for diagnosis or follow-up, guiding further management, such...

Study design: Prospective study. Objective: To investigate the difference in major curve Cobb angle and alignment between directed and non-directed positioning for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) and to evaluate implications on treatment decision-making. Summary of background data: Proper positioning of patients with spinal deformities i...

Background: Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is the most common type of spinal disorder affecting children. Clinical screening and diagnosis require physical and radiographic examinations, which are either subjective or increase radiation exposure. We therefore developed and validated a radiation-free portable system and device utilising ligh...

Background: Since idiopathic scoliosis is a multifactorial disorder, the proprioceptive defect is considered one of its aetiological factors. Genetic studies have separately revealed this relationship, yet it remains indeterminate which specific genes that related to proprioception contributed to the initiation, progression, pathology, and treatme...

Purpose Anterior vertebral body tethering (AVBT) was introduced as a fusionless alternative to treating adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) while preserving range of motion (ROM). This is the first systematic review to compare the ROM outcomes between AVBT and PSF in treating AIS. Methods We conducted a comprehensive search on PubMed, EMBASE, ME...

Background Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is a rare disorder. The treatment options vary depending on how many organs are involved and how extensive the disease is. In this report, a case of LCH with isolated 6th cervical vertebra (C6) collapse was presented. This case was treated with anterior corpectomy and instrumented fusion, followed by l...

Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is a common and progressive spinal deformity in children that exhibits striking sexual dimorphism, with girls at more than five-fold greater risk of severe disease compared to boys. Despite its medical impact, the molecular mechanisms that drive AIS are largely unknown. We previously defined a female-specific A...

Purpose The proximal humeral epiphyses can be conveniently viewed in routine spine radiographs. This study aimed to investigate whether the proximal humeral epiphyseal ossification system (PHOS) can be used to determine the timing of brace weaning in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS), as assessed by the rate of curve progression after brace wea...

Background Restoration of three-dimensional (3D) alignment is critical in correcting patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis using posterior spinal fusion (PSF). However, current studies mostly rely on 2D radiographs, resulting in inaccurate assessment of surgical correction and underlying predictive factors. While 3D reconstruction of biplan...

Purpose: Tether breakage is the most common complication of Vertebral Body Tethering (VBT) occurring in up to 52% of Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS) patients and risks continued progression and revision. Radiographical diagnosis of tether breakage is commonly defined by a 5° increase in inter-screw angle and associates breakage with loss of...

Study design: Prospective observational study. Objective: To determine the prevalence of isolated thoracic degeneration on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), demographic factors and imaging features, as well as the patient-reported quality of life outcomes associated with this condition. Summary of background data: Thoracic intervertebral discs...

Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis is a common condition that affects children between the age of 10 and young adulthood. Rigid brace treatment is an effective treatment to control the progression of spinal deformity. However, it limits mobility and causes discomfort, which leads to low treatment compliance. In this study, we developed and characteriz...

Initial treatment of traumatic spinal cord injury remains as controversial in 2023 as it was in the early 19th century, when Sir Astley Cooper and Sir Charles Bell debated the merits or otherwise of surgery to relieve cord compression. There has been a lack of high-class evidence for early surgery, despite which expeditious intervention has become...

Background: Lumbar disc degeneration (LDD) is considered as one of the main causes of low back pain. For clinical diagnosis of LDD, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is commonly used. Schmorl's node, high intensity zone (HIZ), Modic changes, and other MRI biomarkers of intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration are also associated with low back pain. H...

Background Clinically significant proximal junctional kyphosis (PJK) occurs in 20% of children with scoliosis treated with posterior distraction-based growth-friendly surgery. In an effort to identify modifiable risk factors, it has been theorized biomechanically that low radius of curvature (ROC) implants (i.e., more curved rods) may increase post...

Background: Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) curves of 50° to 75° are inclined to progress and are thus indicated for surgery. Nevertheless, the natural history of curves of 40° to 50° following skeletal maturity remains uncertain and presents a clinical dilemma. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence, rate, and prognostic indi...

The progress of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) affects the patient’s living quality by increasing the posture imbalance. In early scoliosis, postural correction may be provided to halt the progression of the deformity. Thus, bracing treatment will be introduced to the patients. Compared with the traditional hard brace, the soft brace is pref...

BACKGROUND Routine check-ups for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis are critical to monitor progression and prescribe interventions. AIS is primarily screened via physical examination. If there are features of deformity, radiographs are necessary for diagnosis or follow-up, guiding further management, i.e., bracing corrections for moderate deformities...