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  • Traumatic Onset

    I have been reading these posts for the last few months but I've been a little intimidated to post myself. I've noticed from the postings that scoliosis seems to be primarily a disorder affecting females so being a guy, I felt a little out of place. However, I have a question and this is without a doubt the best place to receive feedback.

    Is anyone aware of any documented cases of the traumatic onset or acceleration of scoliosis?

    Many moons ago, in elementary school, I was screened for scoliosis and my parents were told that I had a curve to watch. Nothing ever materialized and I eventually forgot about it. In 2003, I was involved in a car wreck where I was stopped in traffic and rear-ended at 60mph. After the wreck I had severe pain and also noticed I had begun shrinking (my starting height was 6'00" and I shrunk down to 5'08" in less than two years). I went to see a scoliosis specialist and was measured with a curve at 37 degrees in January 2004. I returned for follow-up visits, and the last pre-surgery visit had me at 54 degrees. I had surgery on June 28, 2005 and T4-L3 was fused (two rods/22 screws) and I am doing very well.

    I am employed as a police officer and the wreck I was in occurred on-duty. As you may have figured, I am having some difficulty with my worker's compensation insurance blaming an pre-existing condition. I'm not convinced that I will be permitted to return to work as a police officer so this is a cause of some concern.

    So, back to my original question. Is anyone aware of any documented cases of the traumatic onset or acceleration of scoliosis? Thanks in advance!

  • #2
    I am not sure... but am I right in assuming that you are asking, so youcan fight a possible denial of your worker's comp claim? (If so, your lawyer will have access to some medical experts who can find out the info for you. Are you union? They should represent you, but you could also get private counsel.)

    What state are you in? For example, in Michigan if you have a pre-existing condition, a work related injury (arising out of and in the course of employment) is compensable if contributed to or aggravated or accelerated by the employment in a significant manner. So I would take that to mean that that if you had fairly stable scoliosis, and then were injured on job, and now it is dramatically worse, then that would be compensable. Of course, they'll always challenge it, cause they're trying to save money, but I think you have a strong argument.

    I think you could try a search in Google - click on other searches and look under "Scholar" - there you can search medical studies and the like. If youlive near a med school you may want to check out their library too?

    Hope that helps, if just a little.
    Meg is Spinewhine
    31 years old with thoracic curve
    Wore Boston brace as teenager, but curve continued to progress.
    Surgery on 12/13/2005 with correction from over 55 degrees to under 25 degrees. (Ya baby!)

    The nitty gritty at:
    http://spinewhine.blogspot.com/

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    • #3
      Traumatic Onset

      Here is what I had posted a while back as someone wrote in with a similar question:

      While I don't think an accident can cause scoliosis, perhaps the jolt of the accident "woke it up". Why I say that is I have scoliosis since I was 12, always experienced pain but on and off. I was in my mid-20's and was roller skating, took a horrible fall in the street right on my tail bone and from that point on, my scoliosis got so much worse - the pain was daily. I then had the surgery at 26 years old. I believe in my situation that that is what happened.

      Since you had an accident, it seems like the same situation as I had. Have a quick and painless recovery! Take care, LYNN
      1981 Surgery with Harrington Rod; fused from T2 to L3 - Dr.Keim (at 26 years old)
      2000 Partial Rod Removal
      2001 Right Scapular Resection
      12/07/2010 Surgical stabilization L3 through sacrum with revision harrington rod instrumentation, interbody fusion and pre-sacral fusion L5-S1 - Dr. Boachie (at 56 years old)
      06/11/14 - Posterior cervical fusion C3 - T3 (Mountaineer System) due to severely arthritic joints - Dr. Patrick O'Leary (at age 59)

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