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Types Of Idiopathic Scoliosis

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Scoliosis, a medical condition, causes the spinal column of the human body to curve sideways. Scoliosis often occurs during one’s growth spurt or during the active years of puberty. Scoliosis can come in many forms, from being mild to severe, where unfortunate cases force the body to live with deformities that can potentially be disabling. From glance at appearance, an individual with scoliosis, in general, usually has uneven shoulders, one hip higher than the other, and/or an uneven waist. If these signs begin to worsen, as a result of a more severe case of scoliosis, changes in appearance become more noticeable. The most common type of scoliosis is idiopathic scoliosis, which can often be found in adolescents to start. When a subject is …show more content…

Idiopathic scoliosis involves a deformation and disorientation of the thoracic cage that accompanies the lateral deviation and rotation of the spinal column (Zabjek). To start off, according to one study done at the National Taiwan University Hospital in Taipei, Taiwan, the postural stability control of idiopathic scoliosis patients was worse than normal subjects in general (Chen). The subjects involved in the study stepped on to a force plate while standing in different positions. For example, subjects would stand with their heels together and the toes out 30 degrees or stand with their feet parallel and 8 cm apart. Their center of pressure would be recorded using the force plate. There proved to be a difference in lateral sway (Chen). This difference in lateral sway may have been due to the disproportional moment produced by the shifting of the body mass center caused by that curvature in the spine, especially in the sagittal …show more content…

The trunk begins to get imbalanced and this will lead to pain and stress on articular joints, intervertebral discs, and surrounding muscles (Fortin). A clinical study done in Quebec, Canada found results that the Cobb angle, which is the measure of the curvature of the spine in degrees, is positive related with idiopathic scoliosis, specially those with thoracolumbar or lumbar curves as well as those with unbalanced double curves (Fortin). As the curve in the spine begins to bend on its concave side, the trunk has to sacrifice and burden the load placed upon it to counterbalance the bending moment. This results in postural alterations. There is so much muscular activity on the opposite side of the concave curvature that a trunk imbalance occurs, which offsets the center of mass of the body, which then results in effects to the individual’s postural stability control. The individuals can be seen leaning more to one side than the

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