Scoliosis Specialists

The 89 patients were classified in relation to the apex of the scoliosis curves: thoracic (n = 29); thoracolumbar (n = 40); lumbar (n = 7) and double (n = 13). With the dynamic corrective brace, the patients showed a mean decrease of 8.3° for the major Cobb angle, and a mean decrease of 2.3° for their gibbosity. There was a significant positive relationship between gibbosity and Cobb angle with and without the brace for the thoracic and thoracolumbar curves. A linear regression analysis identified a small mean estimation error for the thoracic curves (7.4° no-brace; 2.7° with brace) and thoracolumbar curves (5.2° no-brace; 5.3° with brace), indicating a predictive potential of the scoliometer. The measure of gibbosity with the scoliometer provides a fairly reliable estimation of Cobb angle at the initial clinical examination of a scoliosis patient. However, when initial Cobb angle and gibbosity are considered, the measure of gibbosity when wearinga brace provides the clinician with a highly reliable estimation of the Cobb angle while in a brace. This relationship also exists for the follow-up with a brace, permitting a judgement of the patient’s evolution under the treatment with SpineCor.

After the diagnosis of idiopathic scoliosis using clinical and radiological evaluations, the measure of gibbosity with the scoliometer provides only a fairly reliable estimation of Cobb angle prior to the treatment. A similar relationship also exists during the follow-up with the SpineCor brace. The gibbosity cannot be utilised as the only criterion by which to judge the prognosis of idiopathic scoliosis. However, when the measure of gibbosity in the brace is used in combination with the initial Cobb angle and gibbosity, it is possible to limit the necessity of a radiograph at each visit. In this situation, the gibbosity provides more information regarding the thoracic than the thoracolumbar region.