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Brace treatment can change aesthetics in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS) patients

Background

Aesthetics is a main goal both of conservative and surgical treatment in AIS. Previously we developed and validated a clinical scale, the Aesthetic Index (AI), to measure aesthetic impairment and changes during treatment.

Aim

To verify the efficacy of bracing on aesthetics in AIS.

Study design

Pre-post study.

Population

Thirty four consecutive patients, age 13.2 ± 3.7, initial Cobb Angle 30 ± 12°, ATR 10 ± 4° Bunnel, 11 males.

Methods

Patients with at least 5/6 score of AI were included. All of them had a brace prescription (18 to 23 h per day). After 6 months, AI was measured again, and pre-post scores compared. The Wilcoxon test was performed. 11 of these patients already concluded treatment and definitive results are reported.

Results

At the beginning, median AI was 6 (95% IC 5–6), after 6 months of brace AI score decreased to 2 (95% IC 0–6) (p < 0.05). In the final subgroup results, the effect of the brace was the same (from 6 to 3). After 6 months, we did not find any difference in the results according to the hours of brace wearing or to the type of exercises performed.

Conclusion

Use of a brace for just 6 months, will improve aesthetics. This is evident even in high aesthetic impact scoliosis. Completing brace treatment can guarantee the maintenance of achieved results.

References

  1. Zaina F, Negrini S, Monticone M, Paroli C, Aulisa A: Repeatability of the Aesthetic Index for adolescent scoliosis idiopathic evaluation. Scoliosis. 2007, 2 (Suppl 1): S46. 10.1186/1748-7161-2-S1-S46.

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  2. Negrini S, Marchini G: Efficacy of the symmetric, patient-oriented, rigid, three-dimensional, active (SPoRT) concept of bracing for scoliosis: a prospective study of the Sforzesco versus Lyon brace. Eura Medicophys. 2007, 43 (2): 171-81.

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Open Access This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Zaina, F., Negrini, S. & Atanasio, S. Brace treatment can change aesthetics in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS) patients. Scoliosis 4 (Suppl 1), O41 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1186/1748-7161-4-S1-O41

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1748-7161-4-S1-O41

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