Scoliosis: Life, Support & Friends

Author: Melvin Jong Bandar Seri Begawan - Brunei is expected to carry out its own scoliosis (side-bending of the spine) surgeries independently, without the aid of any foreign institutions in the next one to two years, said the chairman of AO Spine Asia-Pacific yesterday. Brunei receives about 20 reports of new scoliosis patients each year, most of which occur in teenage girls. Hong Kong-based KV Menon told The Brunei Times that Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Saleha (Ripas) Hospital's neurosurgeons are now capable and have already performed some 30 scoliosis surgeries under foreign supervision and expertise. "I think Brunei should be able to perform right now because the Neurosurgery Department in Ripas have actually been performing these surgeries with us for over two years now," he said on the sidelines of the International Workshop on Scoliosis at Ripas from November 9-15. "Maybe we can come once or twice again to generally supervise. The surgical technique is somethi...

Scoliosos Journal discusses the pathogenesis of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis in girls - a double neuro-osseous theory involving disharmony between two nervous systems, somatic and autonomic expressed in the spine and trunk: possible dependency on sympathetic nervous system and hormones with implications for medical therapy. Authors: R Geoffrey Burwell, Ranjit K Aujla, Michael P Grevitt, Peter H Dangerfield, Alan Moulton, Tabitha L Randell and Susan I Anderson Published: 31 October 2009 Anthropometric data from three groups of adolescent girls - preoperative adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS), screened for scoliosis and normals were analysed by comparing skeletal data between higher and lower body mass index subsets. Unexpected findings for each of skeletal maturation, asymmetries and overgrowth are not explained by prevailing theories of AIS pathogenesis. A speculative pathogenetic theory for girls is formulated after surveying evidence including: (1) the thoracospinal concept ...