If you have had the surgery to correct scoliosis, what were your curvatures and how did the surgery help you?

Question

my cousin has curvatures of 58 and 68. Her parents are skeptical about the surgery. any info to share? thanks!

Answer 1

My surgery was 1 1/2 years ago, I had a 59 degree curve at the time. Prior to the surgery I wore a Milwaukee brace for 2 years and it held the curve around 25 degrees. After being out of the brace for 3 years my spine began to move again and my senior year in high school my ortho surgeon suggested the surgery. How old is your cousin? If they are young and their bones still growing then a brace may work to reduce the curves and keep it in place while their bones harden. Are you located near a major city and if so which one? I have a list of some great doctors available that I could get you.

My parents were also very skeptical about the surgery, but as my back continued to curve I began having trouble breathing and my spine was starting to push on my lungs and other organs, putting me in a lot of danger. They need to consider the future and how this is going to affect their ability to walk and live a normal life. If not corrected at the right time, the curves could progress to a point that they wouldn't be able to fix.

I'd be glad to give any more information or suggestions if needed.

Answer 2

I had a pretty severe right dorsal/left lumbar curvature of my back when I was a teenager. I didn't have any pain but my clothes didn't hang right since one shoulder and one hip were clearly higher than the other. My head was even a bit ******. I tried daily exercises prescribed by a P.T. in order to strengthen the opposing muscle groups but to no avail. So the doctors waited until I was fourteen to do the surgical procedure--giving me time to grow a bit taller (to 5'4") because you don't grow any taller once the surgery is done. The surgical procedure and recovery was difficult but not really painful. My problem now (40 years later) is the development of a secondary curve below the first one that may require additional surgery. I was told that this is not uncommon.

Answer 3

Well, in that severity, surgery is definitely considered as an option. However, if surgery is something you want to put off, there's one therapy you might want to consider. There's a soft brace called Spinecor which is designed to do correction. It has minimal impact on social life as patients retain nearly full range of motion during the treatment. The studies were done with groups up to 50 degrees..but having curves in that range is not contraindicated. The brace became famous in Britain when some of the patients needed something to keep them from getting worse while waiting for the surgery, they tried spinecor. In britain, one waits for a year or 2 before surgery and rigid braces often promots atrophy and rigidity whcih effects surgical outcome. Spinecor was used in those patients because those side effects aren't issue with them. Funny thing is those patients ended up not doing surgery at all because Spinecor worked pretty well.

It's already widely used in European countries and there are handful of providers in US.

Check out http://www.myscoliosis.net

Answer 4

Well, Jehovah's Witnesses have a movie that gives the example of a little girl getting bloodless surgery to correct scoliosis. The surgery was an enormous success! This was a very extreme case of scoliosis, and she came out just fine.

Answer 5

Indications are shown that with a curvature of 40 or more surgery is necessary and the earlier the better....