LAUSR

This is an excellent paper: well-organized, well-written, and well-illustrated. It describes a new mechanism of thoracic SCIWORA in young children that, to the best of my knowledge, has not been postulated before. The authors’ clinical documentation of the mode of deterioration, theMRI changes, and especially the two cases with spinal cord DTI data are most convincing. Thus, this is an important category of spinal cord injury in children that is not only of great scientific significance but also one that generates, or should generate, public scrutiny into certain drastic dance and exercise regimens imposed on young children, seemingly sponsored by community curricula and bolstered by national pride in some countries to showcase their burgeoning athletes. It is heartening to see this paper being published, in no better journal than the international Child’s Nervous System. I would like to see this practice of Bencouraging^ children do back-bend dance routines banned, not just by local authorities but on a government sanctioned and legislated scale. Surely, if China sees 60 children injured this way by the same mechanism, other countries that are known for their national pride in more than gently ushering their young athletes to practice body contortion, often under grueling pressure in preparation for world dance and athletic events such as the Junior Olympics for gymnastics, would have encountered similar dire results. The intention of the present editorial comment is to create an open forum to invite outside inquiries and responses to this paper, to bring these new findings to world attention, and might even spark international debates on this medicosocially important subject.