Summary of current scoliosis treatments

[Karen Ocker]

http://www.scoliosisrx.com/

This particular site describes current thinking on scoliosis. It also shows about how my spine must have looked when I was 13(1956) and the type of surgery-removing the discs in the fusion area.

I went from a straight spine age 10 to 100 degree triple curve in 3 years. In my family: my brother, sister, girl cousin have scoliosis. My mother's was very slight in adulthood. Now she is really twisted--but 93 years old. We were all straight as young children. I was the worst case.
I add that I was an athletic kid as well as my siblings. We all swam, climbed trees and did sports.

[Karen Ocker]

This technical writing talks about various surgical techniques and new ideas.


http://www.scoliosisjournal.com/content/3/1/6

[LindaRacine]

Hi Karen...

Ron Blackman (whose site you referenced) is actually a friend of mine. He was really the pioneer for thorascopic scoliosis surgery. Unfortunately, most of his cases went on to need revision, because he didn't clean out the discs as well as he should have (he admits that). Dr. Blackman's prior partner, George Picetti is getting really good results from minimally invasive surgery, as is Peter Norton from southern California, and probably other surgeons around the country.

Regards,
Linda

[Ballet Mom]

Hi Karen,

I was taking a look at your link for the current thinking on scoliosis. I sure wish that current thinking would review this comment:

Scoliosis occurs in approximately 2% of women and less than 1/2% of men. It usually starts in the early teens or pre-teens and may gradually progress as rapid growth occurs.

I think it's pretty clear from my daughter's case and many other people's cases, on this forum alone, that the curves can progress remarkably quickly. I'm not sure why these specialists don't ever seem to mention that in their scoliosis summaries.