Scoliosis: Life, Support & Friends

Some of you might remember my small contention with Alberta Health Services and the ridiculous wait time that patients were having to endure to get into the Chronic Pain Clinic in Calgary (cue pause for irony). Well, last week my time came. I rolled down to Calgary on a winged, golden chariot (Okay, it was a Greyhound), as angel feathers floated from the sky (it was a snow storm really), during perfectly reasonable weather (which was actually -40 and my eyelids froze shut several times). I was beyond excited. Years of cynicism finally gave way to the sheer excitement that I was finally going to be speaking to people that could help me . It didn't go according to plan. To start with, the weather was so awful in Calgary (remember, this is Canada we're talking about, and better yet, Alberta. In the dead of winter. I shouldn't have to say much more.) So my lovely "Significant other" and myself ordered the cab for the hotel the night before and gave ourselves lots of t...

ScoliosisJournal have recently published a paper about conservative treatment of idiopathic scoliosis according to FITS concept: presentation of the method and preliminary, short term radiological and clinical results based on SOSORT and SRS criteria. Background Conservative scoliosis therapy according to the FITS Concept is applied as a unique treatment or in combination with corrective bracing. The aim of the study was to present author's method of diagnosis and therapy for idiopathic scoliosis FITS - Functional Individual Therapy of Scoliosis and to analyze the early results of FITS therapy in a series of consecutive patients. Methods The analysis comprised separately: (1) single structural thoracic, thoracolumbar or lumbar curves and (2) double structural scoliosis - thoracic and thoracolumbar or lumbar curves. The Cobb angle and Risser sign were analyzed at the initial stage and at the 2.8- year follow-up. The percentage of patients improved (defined as decrease of Cobb...

This year's Move-athon will take place on the 29th October 2011, last year we blogged about this event and it was a great success, Sharon Terry (a member of our Facebook group ) is a great inspiration for all she does for people with disabilities and Scoliosis, so this year we are again promoting the Move-athon and showing her the support she deserves. Good luck guys and we look forward to hearing all about the event. Details of this are listed below. Join the Move-athon Saturday, October 29, for the Halloween Move-athon Benefiting Pediatric Orthopaedic Research NEW YORK, NY September 2, 2011 — On Saturday, October 29, New York-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital’s Pediatric Orthopaedic Division will be holding their 3rd Annual Move-athon benefitting Columbia University Pediatric Orthopaedic Research Group. All funds raised will support finding innovative and effective ways to help kids with musculoskeletal conditions, such as cerebral palsy, scoliosis, spina...

Authors: Angelos Kaspiris, Theodoros B Grivas, Hans-Rudolf Weiss and Deborah Turnbull Published By: ScoliosisJournal Background In view of the limited data available on the conservative treatment of patients with congenital scoliosis (CS), early surgery is suggested in mild cases with formation failures. Patients with segmentation failures will not benefit from conservative treatment. The purpose of this review is to identify the mid- or long-term results of spinal fusion surgery in patients with congenital scoliosis. Methods Retrospective and prospective studies were included, reporting on the outcome of surgery in patients with congenital scoliosis. Studies concerning a small numbers of cases treated conservatively were included too. We analyzed mid-term (5 to 7 years) and long-term results (7 years or more), both as regards the maintenance of the correction of scoliosis and the safety of instrumentation, the early and late complications of surgery and thei...

Authors: Matteo Saccucci, Lucia Tettamanti, Steafno Mummolo, Antonella Polimeni, Felice Festa and Simon Tecco Published By: ScoliosisJournal BackGround Idiopathic scoliosis is a deformity without clear etiology. It is unclear wether there is an association between malocclusion and scoliosis. Several types of occlusion were described in subjects with scoliosis, mostly case-reports. Objectives The aim of this review was to evaluate the type of occluslins more prevalent in subjects with scoliosis Search Strategy All randomised and controlled clinical trials identified from the Cochrane Oral Health Group Trials Register, a MEDLINE search using the Mesh term scoliosis, malocclusion, and relevant free text words, and the bibliographies of papers and review articles which reported the outcome of orthodontic treatment in subjects with scoliosis that were published as abstracts or papers between 1970 and 2010. Selection criteria All randomised and controlled clinical...

Published by Scoliosis Journal Katharina Schroth, born February 22nd 1894 in Dresden Germany, was suffering from a moderate scoliosis herself and underwent treatment with a steel brace at the age of 16 years before she decided to develop a more functional approach of treatment for herself. Inspired by a balloon, she tried to correct by breathing away the deformities of her own trunk by inflating the concavities of her body selectively in front of a mirror. She also tried to 'mirror' the deformity, by overcorrecting with the help of certain pattern specific corrective movements. She recognized that postural control can only be achieved by changing postural perception. From 1921 this new form of treatment with specific postural correction, correction of breathing patterns and correction of postural perception was performed with rehabilitation times of 3 months in her own little institute in Meissen and in the late 30's and early 40's she was ...

Facet joints are funny things. Not funny ha-ha, as in 'let me tell you a joke about a clown', but funny, as in 'let me tell you a story about a clown who lost everyone he loved in a terrible balloon animal accident.' Facet joints are funny, because so often they seem to be the starting point for post-surgical problems. Funny, because despite the research and experimental trials that have gone on, they can more often than not stubbornly refuse to be helped. That was my experience this last February. I went through the injections hoping that I might gain some relief from my fun arthritis; instead all I got was a bunch of needles and another reason to roll my eyes skyward. With the lack of success on the part of the facet joint injections (oh cortisone, how you have failed me) I was placed on the list for the medial branch blocks, and having just completed the second half of them, I have only one thing to say... HolyHannahWhatJustHappenedToMeOwOwOwOwOwHelplessWeeping...