Skip to main content

Barcelona Scoliosis Physical Therapy School – BSPTS – based on classical Schroth principles: short term effects on back asymmetry in idiopathic scoliosis

Background

Previous results have shown the specificity of Schroth exercises (according to BSPTS protocol) but in a series including patients under bracing [14].

Objective

To investigate the short term effects of an intensive program of exercises on back asymmetry in idiopathic scoliosis with no other treatment.

Materials and methods

Retrospective, including 47 patients with IS treated exclusively with exercises. Mean age 18.64 ± 5.78 years. Outpatient Intensive Rehabilitation was carried out, three hours a day, five days a week, 4 weeks. Surface topography (Formetric) was performed to measure trunk imbalance, surface rotation and lateral deviation before and after the treatment period. The obtained pre- and post-treatment values were then compared.

Results

The mean trunk imbalance prior to and after the treatment was 10.16 mm and 8.53 mm respectively (p<0.05). The pre-treatment mean value of the lateral deviation (rms) was 13.92 mm, compared to the post-treatment one of 11.96 mm (p<0.05) and of the lateral deviation (max) was 25.6 mm and 21.42 mm respectively (p<0.05). The mean initial value of the surface rotation (rms) was 6.88 degrees, reaching 6.52 degrees at the end of the treatment (p<0.05) and of the surface rotation (max) 13.22 degrees and 11.88 degrees respectively (p<0.05).

Conclusions

Current results suggest that exercises according to Schroth principles, following BSPTS protocol, are able to improve back asymmetry, spinal imbalance in the frontal plane and virtual spinal geometry in a short term, confirming specificity in its mechanics of action.

References

  1. Rigo M, Quera G, Puigdevall N, Corbella C, Gil MJ, Martinez S, Villagrasa M: Biomechanics of specific exercises to correct scoliosis in 3D[abstract]. Pediatr Rehabil. 2004, 7: 53-4.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Freidel K, Petermann F, Reichel D, Warschburger P, Weiss HR: Medical and psychosocial outcome of Scoliosis In-Patient Rehabilitation (SIR). 5th international conference on conservative management of spinal deformities. 2008, Athens

    Google Scholar 

  3. Weiss HR, Steiner A, Reichel D, Petermann F, Warschburger P, Freidel K: Medizinischer Outcome nach stationärer Intensivrehabilitation bei Skoliose. Phys Med Rehab Kuror. 2001, 11: 100-103. 10.1055/s-2001-14437.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Lehnert-Schroth C: Dreidimensionale Skoliosebehandlung. 2000, Urban/Fischer, München, 6

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

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 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.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Jelačić, M., Villagrasa, M., Pou, E. et al. Barcelona Scoliosis Physical Therapy School – BSPTS – based on classical Schroth principles: short term effects on back asymmetry in idiopathic scoliosis. Scoliosis 7 (Suppl 1), O57 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1186/1748-7161-7-S1-O57

Download citation

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1748-7161-7-S1-O57

Keywords