We thank Dr Shoaib for the points raised1 regarding our recent article.2

It is difficult to compare results across studies because differing success criteria are often used, an issue which we mentioned in our discussion and believe should be addressed by future studies. In particular these outcome criteria do not take into account the initial characteristics of the patients studied or assess the control of their deviations. We chose the Pineles et al 3 definition of ‘excellent’ as we wished to use a stringent outcome measure that included motor and sensory parameters. This does not mean that we intended the studies to be directly compared. The mean ages and duration of follow-up of children in the two studies are different, and …