What is Scoliosis

Scoliosis is curvature of the spine that can occur at any point in someone’s life. It may be congenital, a child may be born with scoliosis as an infant. It may be acquired. One of the most common causes of scoliosis is what we call idiopathic scoliosis that can occur in an adolescent period.

What are the Causes?

We think that this is mostly genetic and that multiple genes may be involved. In fact, there’s genetic testing that can be done to determine what the liklihood of progression may be.

What About Adults Who Have Scoliosis?

Adults that have scoliosis can have scoliosis that develops as a result of degeneration of the spine where the spine becomes arthritic, the joints become lax, and the spine starts to twist and turn with aging. Or, they may have scoliosis as a child that was treated surgically or non-operatively that has continued to progress or also has developed degenerative features with that.

Patients with scoliosis are mostly asympomatic.

What are the Symptoms?

Some patients have pain. The treatment is generally aimed at lessening their pain with non-operative modalities such as exercise, physical therapy or rehabilitation. Occassionally interventional pain management is helpful. Injections in the spine, that can give short term relief. Patients with painful large scoliosis that have chronic symptoms, are often best managed with surgical treatment.