Scoliosis Blog

Happy 2011,

Where did December, January and February go??

School holidays resulted in a busy time in the clinic. We had quite a few local and interstate patients come in for Schroth treatment.  The age and curve patterns varied considerably as well as a few post surgical patients came in for treatment.

I still get quite a few queries on who would be a reasonable candidate for conservative scoliosis treament.  This is a slighly loaded question as Schroth scoliosis treatment is not an alternative to non-conservative (surgical) treatment but is part of the treatment.  My general approach is that if the curves and posture can be stabilised within a reasonable range then conservative managment might be appropriate whilst surgery is delayed or offset. If not- and there is a strong chance of curve progression into "significant" ranges then surgery is definitely indicated and Shroth therapy is used as a preparatory phase leading towards surgery. 

The International Society On Scoliosis Orthopaedic and Rehablitation Treatment (SOSORT) has published guidelines on conservative management of Scoliosis (available here) which provide an approach to management.  A bigger question is one of bracing....

If curves are in surgical range then they are often in bracing range.  Unfortunately, Australia has tended to be a bit behind the rest of the world with availability of bracing options.  But this is beginning to change and we are beginning to see more Assymetric Rigid Bracing available.  We are also seeing more options in dynamic bracing with the Spinecore brace.

Decisions to brace are not taken easily but once bracing is commenced we need to ensure that eventually the muscles of the body and it's spatial awareness systems are able to maintain the correction achieved by the brace. If not, then the body will return to unbraced positions - and that is why there is still a great deal of debate whether bracing is effective in the long term.

March was also a big month for one of my physio. colleagues and friends. Shana-Lee, whom I have worked with for quite a few years, went over to Wisconsin to do her Schroth training.  I will ask her to write an article for the Blog.

I will be attending the SOSORT conference in May in Barcelona so if anyone out there has any questions please ask.... as I hope to be able to pick the brains of the delegates.