Here is a quote from a recent paper in Scoliosis Journal that was co-authored by Joe O'Brien that concludes, in part, that two RCTs of brace treatment have or should settle the question of brace efficacy (that they work)...
http://scoliosisjournal.biomedcentra...013-015-0046-7
Well doesn't between "20° and 40°" about cover the population of "successful" bracing treatments? So essentially, 58% of "successfully" treated brace patients are expected to progress to surgery. Then we have the ~50% of patients who are braced needlessly (would not progress anyway) but who are also in this curve magnitude range. Fifty-eight percent of them are expected to progress to surgery.
So now we need data actually showing that curve magnitude is rigorously tied to progress to surgery in that angle window. If that isn't rigorous tied together, I think this blows bracing completely out of the water despite the two RCTs that are touted in this paper.
What am I missing?
This is even more striking when it is recognized that the new epidemiological data indicate that 58 % of patients between 20° and 40° will progress to surgery, or above 50° of Cobb Angle, if left untreated [6].
Well doesn't between "20° and 40°" about cover the population of "successful" bracing treatments? So essentially, 58% of "successfully" treated brace patients are expected to progress to surgery. Then we have the ~50% of patients who are braced needlessly (would not progress anyway) but who are also in this curve magnitude range. Fifty-eight percent of them are expected to progress to surgery.
So now we need data actually showing that curve magnitude is rigorously tied to progress to surgery in that angle window. If that isn't rigorous tied together, I think this blows bracing completely out of the water despite the two RCTs that are touted in this paper.
What am I missing?
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