spinecor

[MATJESNIC]

Celia,

I'm so glad your kids are feeling better. What a great picture. It's so nice to finally put your face to your name. What a lovely family!!

I keep leaving messges for the clinic to tell them which day I want to come. But I keep getting the machine. Does anyone know which days they are there?

[Celia]

Thanks Melissa! You're very sweet! I think the doctors in Montreal hold clinic appointments Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays.


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[MATJESNIC]

Thank you, Scoliosis Gurl.

[~ScoliosisGurl~]

Your welcome! Which one of your puppys did you just get, the one in the front or the back?

[MATJESNIC]

The one in the back is Roxy. We just got her. She is 5 months old. Jake is almost 7 years old. I wasn't allowed to have a dog when I was growing up because my Mom said they were too messy and too much work. Of course, she was right. But they sure are a lot of fun. They keep us busy and happy.

[~ScoliosisGurl~]

I knew that one was Roxy! She is so cute, well they both are actually. I want another one real bad.

[mpj]

Who did the study?

Zuma,

Was that the study done by a couple named Weismann, or something close to that? It sounds like the one that was discussed earlier in this thread?

Thanks.

mpj

[Celia]

If I remember correctly... *we* determined Dr. Weiss didn't get adequate training in fitting the Spinecor brace and hence his results were flawed


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[mpj]

Study

Celia,

That is the study I was thinking of.

Thanks.

Sarah

[MATJESNIC]

Just got off the phone with Montreal. Our appt. is Monday, May 28th at 1:20. It is Memorial Day here so schools are closed and we won't miss work!! We are taking all 3 kids because it is my 45th birthday the day of the appt. and I want to spend the day with my family, even if it is in a hospital!! We will stay in Plattsburgh the night before.

My son is 18 and doesn't have a passport. But I think he is fine until 2008. My older daughter has one because she went on a trip with school.

[Celia]

Great news Melissa!

Did everyone see this? It's the SOSORT meeting which is taking place in Boston May 13 -16 2007. Take a look at the presenters....Dr. Rivard will be there! I wonder if they're planning to do a webcast of the presentations as they do with the SRS meetings ?

http://www.scoliosis.org/sosort2007/...CE_PROGRAM.pdf


http://ent.groundspring.org/EmailNow...7248&u=1265266


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[zuma]

If I remember correctly... *we* determined Dr. Weiss didn't get adequate training in fitting the Spinecor brace and hence his results were flawed


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Who is the *we* who determined Dr Weiss didn't get adequate training in fitting spinecor, who trained Dr Weiss to incorrectly fit spinecor and who if anyone has corrected Dr Weiss in fitting the brace.

Has anyone challanged the validity of Dr Weiss's results and has there been other studies that challenge or refute his results.

[Celia]

Who is the *we* who determined Dr Weiss didn't get adequate training in fitting spinecor, who trained Dr Weiss to incorrectly fit spinecor and who if anyone has corrected Dr Weiss in fitting the brace.

The "we" is a general consensus reached by the Spinecor parents on this thread and it's based on a letter sent to Gerbo by none other than Andrew Mills, Head of the Spinecorporation. As for "who" is training Dr. Weiss, I'm afraid I can't answer that question but maybe you can direct your question to Andrew Mills.


Dear Mr Huisman

Your email has been forwarded on to Dr Rivard however; I can easily answer your questions. More reduction in a rigid brace will not necessarily make any significant difference to the outcome.

Rigid bracing at best will prevent progression from the initial pre-treatment cobb angle, applying more force to give the illusion of more correction on an in brace x-ray may make you feel the treatment is better but that is not necessarily the case at all. There is some debate amongst practioners about the compromise between reduction of major curves, compensatory curves and balance, from my point of view all three should be considered and one not optimumized at the expense of the others.

For 12 - 24 months post rigid brace treatment curves will tend increase until they stabilize out, generally close to where treatment started.

At your daughter’s age the risk of progression is, as you know very high and it is possible you may yet see more progression despite bracing.
SpineCor treatment will not perform miracles but offers the best possibly of achieving a final stable result post treatment with the lowest Cobb angle achievable in any particular case.
In Montreal we now have long-term follow-up, 5 years, post bracing in a large proportion of the original 400 patient study group.
Results of the latest follow-up, not yet, published show exceptional stability post treatment with overall better results than any conventional rigid brace treatment. With more than 5,000 patients treated worldwide now there is no question in our mind concerning the efficacy of SpineCor Treatment. There have of course been some failures, which basically stem from failures in training. Our training program has changed significantly in recent years to prevent future treatment centre failures.

Dr Weiss, incidentally, treated a group of 20 patients with SpineCor braces on which he based his opinions. These treatments were carried without any training or following the SpineCor treatment protocols, not surprisingly the treatments failed.

Nuffield had issues with funding the SpineCor trial as well as great difficulty in recruiting patients with a randomised protocol for treatment vs. non-treatment. Only 5 patients were treated in 18 months against a recruitment protocol of 20 patients in 12 months. The lack of funding, some training issues and any enthusiasm from the team involved resulted in them just giving up.

In general there are huge problems to introduce SpineCor into the UK since orthotists who traditionally provide bracing treatments find SpineCor very challenging, added to this they are often under great pressure to see patients very quickly and simply do not have the time for SpineCor. Furthermore it needs to be understood that is a big learning curve with SpineCor and the skills required are very different to those for rigid bracing. For these reasons it is essential that trainees treat significant numbers of patients to develop their skills. The current SpineCor accreditation program demands a minimum of twenty patient treatments and 6 months experience before individuals are eligible for accreditation. In the UK there are few treatment centres that offer the opportunity to meet the training criteria in a reasonable period of time. A change in the method of treatment delivery is required for SpineCor to ever become mainstream in the UK.
Personally I am working on ways of changing the way SpineCor is made available to the NHS but this is likely to be slow.
The latest SpineCor treatment results have been submitted and accepted by the European Spine Journal but as yet we do not know when publication might be.

I hope this information is useful to you.

Kind regards

Andrew J Mills MBAPO
Managing Director/Orthotist

The SpineCorporation Limited


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[zuma]

Thanks for the inforamtion Celia

Its hard to know what to believe and who is right and who is wrong when you read some of these studies as there is so much information that often contradicts itself

Thanks again for the explanation

z

[alabama mom]

Hi everyone. We got back from Montreal Thursday night. It was a VERY long drive. So hard on my daughter, with the new brace on.
I really liked Dr Rivard, and Dr Colliard. My daughter especially liked Sue Ann, who taught us how to put on and take off the brace. She also gave us tips on underclothes, and washing it. I think she said that we could put the whole thing in a lingerie bag, and wash it in the machine on gentle/cold cycle. Is this correct? I am a little confused, because the booklet they gave me seems to say that you can only wash the vest portion of it this way. And, that the base should be washed by hand. What do you guys do?
I also have questions about the break times, out of brace. I know that Dr Rivard said we could do either 2 x's 2 hours, or 3 hours then 1 hour. But, my daughter insists that he also said we could do 4 x's 1 hour. Does anyone else do this? Do you guys know if this is ok? Please let me know, if you can.
My daughter is getting more used to the brace every day. I am SO relieved of this. I really hope that we are doing it right. Does anyone else have the problem of the base shifting, and not staying centered? Please let me know if you do.
Thank you so much, for any help you can offer, I am sure I will be needing it more, as time goes on. I would also love to help anyone else out there, if I can.
Thanks again....good luck to all of our kids....and my daughter, Rachel, says Hi!