Scoliosis: Life, Support & Friends

Study looks at whether back braces offer benefit for scoliosis Author: Blythe Bernhard Kelli Sargent, a seventh-grader from Belleview, Mo., takes off the back brace she wears to treat her scoliosis as she gets ready for basketball practice. (Emily Rasinksi/P-D) Scoliosis screenings in middle schools find thousands of teenagers with curved spines each year. What happens next isn't as well planned. Treatment for scoliosis hasn't changed in five decades — if the spine is curved to a certain degree, the teenager gets a back brace. But research has not conclusively proved the benefits of the braces. Some young people who don't wear a brace never have any problems and their curves never worsen. Others wear the braces for years and still end up needing back surgery. A long-term study at Washington University and more than 20 other research centers hopes to figure out why. "If we can say that bracing doesn't change (the progression of a spinal curve) then it's a treat...

So now I am in my third boston brace. :( It hurts. The side that goes up is on the right, whereas it used to be on the left. It feels so different. It's made me really sick as well. I don't have holes in it yet, so it is really really hot. Last night, I lost my appetite and didn't eat dinner, then this morning, I went pale and felt really sick and weak. I went back to bed and closed my eyes. When I opened them again, I couldn't see anything! My parents were going to call the ambulance. Oh even though I TRY to stay positive, it's so hard. Bracing sucks. :( Here's a picture of my new brace (without holes) and my old brace.

Yeh, I sorta forgot about writing in to the blog after I got my new brace but I have finally remembered. My new brace isn't much different from my old brace, except it hurts a lot more!!! Now I remember why I used to not mind going swimming! Speaking of swimming, does anyone else here HATE going swimming for their back? Coz I have never been a swimmer and can't stand it! Anyway, so I went to the hospital on Thursday and got my new brace. It was obviously taller and made me stand uo even straighter than I had been standing before! The doctor took away Soapy, my old brace. So I went home and lied down (because I could hardly breathe!) and had to take the next day off school as well. I don't like my new brace much. I've called it Bossy the Boston Brace (yeh, I know, very original!) and it kills at times! It doesn't even have holes all over it yet. When I breathe in suddenly, air rushes out of somewhere and makes a huge wooshing sound. My old brace did NOT do that. Now ...

We have blogged about the SpineCor brace a few times and had many discussions about this brace on the Scoliosis Online Support Group. For those of you that have not heard of the SpineCor brace then here is some blurb for you to get your head round, along with a link to a study that was carried out :) Rigid braces have already proven to be ineffective and a lot of surgeons do not prescribe braces nowadays. Rather, they ask patients to just have normal life until surgery is required. What's the point of letting kids go through the experience of wearing a brace for years when they are going to do surgery anyway? Last June Journal of Pediatric Orthopedic published spinecor study analyzed with new criteria set by SRS...all braces were analyzed this way so that direct comparison would be possible. SpineCore Brace Study We have a few members on the group have been fitted with this brace, below are some comments from Verda Tondevold. Connect with Verda on the Scoliosis Online Support Group...

Yes, when I went for my appointment today at the hospital, I found out that I'm getting a new brace! Hmm... I don't actually know if I'm excited about this but I think I'll miss the comfort of my old brace (Soapy) when I get it at first. Luckily, the orthotist let me stick to the thin plastic since I've been improving a lot! Now this moulding/casting/brace fitting was way easier than I last remembered! I guess it's because I'm used to wearing a brace now. :) So first the orthotist weighed me and measured me (I got taller!) and you probably know how it the routine. After many complicated measurements using various different instruments, he finally told me to get into two thin stretchy stocking dresses and hop onto the wire bed thing (sorry, I don't really know any technical terms!). When he'd lain me straight and put my legs in slings, he slid a metal ruler type thing between the material. Then he wet the dress and smoothed the plaster slowly over it....

Scoliosis Journal posted the following information regarding: Guidelines on "Standard of management of idiopathic scoliosis with corrective braces in everyday clinics and in clinical research": SOSORT Consensus 2008 Published: 16 January 2009 Authors: Stefano Negrini, Theodoros B Grivas, Tomasz Kotwicki, Manuel Rigo and Fabio Zaina Background Reported failure rates,(defined based on percentage of cases progressing to surgery) of corrective bracing for idiopathic scoliosis are highly variable. This may be due to the quality of the brace itself, but also of the patient care during treatment. The latter is sometimes neglected, even though it is considered a main determinant of good results among conservative experts of SOSORT. The aim of this paper was to develop and verify the Consensus on management of scoliosis patients treated with braces Methods We followed a Delphi process in four steps, distributing and gradually changing according to the results a set of recommendations...