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  • #1

    Triple curve?!

    I went back today to my back specialist, who is not the guy who will do my surgery, but we went over my existing x-rays in detail and he tells me I have a 51 degree thoracic curve, a 63 degree lumbar curve, AND a "lumbo-sacral curve" of 24 degrees. Anyone ever heard of a lumbo-sacral curve before? I have never seen this.

    So I have not a double major curve, but a TRIPLE?! OMG!
    Stephanie, age 56
    Diagnosed age 8
    Milwaukee brace 9 years, no further treatment, symptom free and clueless until my 40s that curves could progress.
    Thoracolumbar curve 39 degrees at age 17
    Now somewhere around 58 degrees thoracic, 70 degrees thoracolumbar
    Surgeon Dr. Michael S. O'Brien, Baylor's Southwest Scoliosis Center, Dallas TX
    Bilateral laminectomies at L3 to L4, L4 to L5 and L5 to S1 on April 4, 2012
    Foramenotomies L3 through S1 in August 2014
    Tags: None
  • #2
    I never knew I had 3 curves either, but before I got my surgery in June I found out I had a lumbar sacral curve. I think the lumbar-sacral curve is common but no one really knows about it. My doctor verbally didn't tell me, I just read it in his report. I have a 20 degree lumbar sacral curve.
    Surgery date: June 8, 2010 with Dr. Boachie
    Thoracic curve: 55 degrees, corrected to 25 degrees
    Lumbar curve: 58 degrees, corrected to 27 degrees
    Posterior-only surgery, Levels T3-L3
    31 year old mother of 2 young kids

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    • #3
      Hi...

      Yes, I think they're relatively common in adults, and are often called fractional curves.

      --Linda
      Never argue with an idiot. They always drag you down to their level, and then they beat you with experience. --Twain
      ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      Surgery 2/10/93 A/P fusion T4-L3
      Surgery 1/20/11 A/P fusion L2-sacrum w/pelvic fixation

      Comment

      • #4
        Yes, I was told that too. He even said besides the 3 there was one in the neck I couldn't actually see but probably explains why my neck always hurts. I knew it didn't have the bowing-out curve it's supposed to have. It's straight from a side view. Was really going for that snakey look with all those curves. Janet
        Janet

        61 years old--57 for surgery

        Diagnosed in 1965 at age of 13--no brace
        Thoracic Curve: 96 degrees to 35 degrees
        Lumbar Curve: 63 degrees to 5 degrees
        Surgery with Dr. Lenke in St. Louis--March 30, 2009
        T-2 to Pelvis, and hopefully all posterior procedure.

        All was posterior along with 2 cages and 6 osteotomies.

        Comment

        • #5
          Originally posted by Doodles View Post
          Was really going for that snakey look with all those curves. Janet
          Yeah, straight spines are for sissies!

          Glad to know I'm not the only one with "extra" curves.
          Stephanie, age 56
          Diagnosed age 8
          Milwaukee brace 9 years, no further treatment, symptom free and clueless until my 40s that curves could progress.
          Thoracolumbar curve 39 degrees at age 17
          Now somewhere around 58 degrees thoracic, 70 degrees thoracolumbar
          Surgeon Dr. Michael S. O'Brien, Baylor's Southwest Scoliosis Center, Dallas TX
          Bilateral laminectomies at L3 to L4, L4 to L5 and L5 to S1 on April 4, 2012
          Foramenotomies L3 through S1 in August 2014

          Comment

          • #6
            Unless it's structural it's not really relevant to treatment, yes? Maybe those curves below double majors are usually only compensatory.

            It might be like why our surgeon never talked about the compensatory curve below the structural T curve in both my daughters.
            Sharon, mother of identical twin girls with scoliosis

            No island of sanity.

            Question: What do you call alternative medicine that works?
            Answer: Medicine

            "We are all African."

            Comment

            • #7
              I have 3 curves-- the ones above and below my major curves are just under 30º each. They are what sort of put me in balance so I mostly looked straight. Or at least that's what I always figured.
              71 and plugging along... but having some problems
              2007 52° w/ severe lumbar stenosis & L2L3 lateral listhesis (side shift)
              5/4/07 posterior fusion T2-L4 w/ laminectomies and osteotomies @L2L3, L3L4
              Dr. Kim Hammerberg, Rush Univ. Medical Center in Chicago
              Corrected to 15°
              CMT (type 2) DX in 2014, progressing
              10/2018 x-rays - spondylolisthesis at L4/L5 - Dr. DeWald is monitoring

              Click to view my pics: pics of scoli x-rays digital x-rays, and pics of me

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