Authors' reply

摘要

We fully agree with Hao Pang and colleagues that "the indication for magnetically controlled growing rods... should be same as that of a traditional growing rod procedure", and that has always been our intention. The aim of growing rods is to maintain spinal growth during the rapid growth phases of a child; for most cases, we agree with Pang and colleagues that this should be in children around or younger than 10 years. However, perhaps more important than the chronological age is the skeletal age of the child, and we clearly stated in our paper that patient 2 (aged 12 years, 1 month) was grossly skeletally immature, with a bone age equivalent to that of a 10-year-old child. Similar reasons exist for the other patients, whose disorders were syndromal or secondary to neurofibromatosis.