Imagine a child undergoing a major procedure to straighten a severely curved spine, only to face a new and frightening problem: seeing double and losing control of her tongue. That's what happened to a 12-year-old girl after about 40 days of a treatment called halo-pelvic traction, which uses an external frame to slowly lengthen the spine.
Her symptoms—painless double vision and her tongue deviating to the left—appeared after her spine had been lengthened by roughly 12 centimeters. The medical team stopped the traction treatment and started a therapy aimed at supporting nerve health. Over the next 50 days, her symptoms gradually faded away.
This is a detailed report of just one patient's experience. Because it's a single case, we can't say for certain that the traction treatment caused the nerve issues, only that the problems appeared during the treatment. It also doesn't tell us how often this might happen to other children. The report suggests that stopping the treatment quickly when such symptoms appear might help prevent lasting nerve damage, but more evidence is needed to be sure.