How should one treat congenital scoliosis with a 55 degrees of curvature?
Q: My daughter is 6 years old. She has congenital scoliosis with about 55 degrees of curvature. She has no pain. The curvature increased till the age of 5 years. For the last one year she is doing yoga under supervision of a yoga expert and the recent X-ray suggests that the curvature has stabilised. She is not under any medication. I request you to throw light on any non-operative methods for scoliosis. Is bracing and physiotherapy (yoga) helpful and what is the approximate expenditure for bracing in India?
A:A 55 degree congenital scoliosis which has progressed in the past years needs intervention. Without mincing words, your daughter would require surgery. Unfortunately, physiotherapy or yoga have not been proven to be useful. Bracing has not been found to be useful in stopping progression of a congenital curve. They have better value in treating idiopathic curves. Regular assessment in terms of clinical & radiological, is mandatory. I wonder if standing erect X-rays of whole spine were taken and the cobbs angles measured on a regular basis. Remember; a 4-6 degree increase a year is actually 40-60 degree increase in the next 10 years! Any surgery is to mainly to stop that progression.