Scoliosis is a common cause of harm to children’s crest health, and many parents, due to lack of knowledge in this area, fail to detect that their children have scoliosis in time, thus delaying the treatment and making it develop into a serious crest deformity, which is very distressing.
Incidence of scoliosis: girls > boys
There are many types of scoliosis, the most common of which is the unknown cause of “idiopathic scoliosis”, accounting for about 80%, and the more common is congenital scoliosis and neuromuscular scoliosis.
In 1986, Peking Union Medical College Hospital conducted a survey of children aged 7 to 15 years old in the surrounding districts and counties of Beijing and found that the incidence of scoliosis was 1.06%. Adolescent girls are more likely to develop scoliosis than boys.
Although the cause is not clear, it cannot be prevented in advance, and patients with mild to moderate scoliosis do not feel anything special, it is difficult for parents to detect the problem if they do not pay more attention to it. However, parents can pay attention to their children’s crest health from the time they start elementary school, and if they find any abnormalities, they can consult a doctor at an early stage.
Learn to diagnose scoliosis (scoliosis) in one step
The figure shows the Adams Forward Bending Test.
Extend your arms forward, then bend downward, keep your arms down, palms together, feet together, do not bend your knees, the examiner observes whether the two sides of the crest are symmetrical from the front and back, if not, it is positive, and you need to take an X-ray of the whole crest.
Age group with high incidence of scoliosis: 10~14 years old
Scoliosis is often found in adolescents between the ages of 10 and 14, because this is the second growth spurt in a person’s life, and the crest grows faster.
Adolescents, especially teenage girls, often wear loose clothing and hunch their heads down to hide their developing bodies, and are reluctant to let anyone look at them, which sometimes hides the condition of the crest. Parents can ask their children to look in the mirror to see if their shoulders are the same height.
Five signs of scoliosis
Most adolescents with scoliosis are discovered by parents when their children take a bath or wear less clothes.
If you find that your child has the following signs, be alert to whether he or she has scoliosis.
1. one shoulder is higher than the other.
2. asymmetrical development of both breasts in girls, with the left side tending to be larger
3, bulging on one side of the back.
4. a crease on one side of the waist.
5, one side of the hip is higher than the other side.
At this time, you can give your child some simple checks, such as touching the spines of the crest with your hand to see if they are in a straight line, or having your child stand upright and bend forward to see if the back is symmetrical.
If, after a simple examination, you find that your child has an abnormality, you should immediately go to the hospital for an examination.
Scoliosis treatment methods
Current research has shown that neither massage, physical exercise, electrical stimulation, nor traction can treat scoliosis. There are currently three main methods of treatment for scoliosis of the crest.
1, regular observation.
2.Support treatment.
3, surgical treatment.
The most important thing to consider is the angle of scoliosis.
Mild: less than 20 degrees, no symptoms and basically normal appearance. Patients with mild degrees do not need treatment, but they need regular follow-up. Patients who are in adolescence should return to the hospital every few months, or use the annual summer and winter vacations, for an X-ray to check for changes in the angle of scoliosis.
Moderate: 20 to 35 degrees, even with clothes on, the shoulder can be seen to be one high and one low. Patients in puberty or prepubertal age should wear a tailor-made brace. Before deciding to treat with a brace, the patient or parent must get a consensus with the doctor that the brace can prevent the angle of scoliosis from worsening, but cannot correct the scoliosis.
In some cases, even with a brace, the scoliosis continues to worsen and surgery is inevitable. In general, patients must wear a brace for 23 hours a day until puberty is over and skeletal development is complete.
Many patients who wear braces reduce their activities due to the constraint of the brace or fear of further injury to the crest. In addition, patients who wear a brace for a long time tend to have muscle atrophy and poorer bone quality. In addition to the usual calisthenics that should be done when taking off the brace, patients should try to do more exercises. Also, the brace needs to be replaced in time with the change and development of the condition.
Severe: greater than 40 degrees, the patient’s appearance and postural changes are more obvious. Patients at this stage must be treated surgically for scoliosis to avoid further worsening of the angle. If the angle of scoliosis of the crest is greater than 40 degrees, there is still a possibility of aggravation, increasing by approximately 1 degree per year, even if the patient is already an adult. Surgery can correct scoliosis, and the residual angle after correction is highly dependent on the patient’s preoperative angle and crestal flexibility.
Scoliosis treatment misconceptions
There are many misconceptions in the treatment of scoliosis. Some doctors do not know much about the treatment of scoliosis and always say that they will do the surgery after the patient grows up, which results in delaying the surgery. There are also some medical institutions, for those patients who should be operated, still suggest wearing brace treatment, and even some patients, have been listening to doctors, adhere to pull the bar and other physical exercise, the results until the scoliosis are 70-80 degrees, only to the big hospital, the results affect the effectiveness of surgery.
The surgical treatment, there are also many misconceptions, the level of treatment varies around the world, some hospitals also one-sided pursuit of orthopedic effect and ignore some basic principles in the treatment of scoliosis. We call for the inclusion of scoliosis screening in the physical examination of primary and secondary school students as soon as possible to detect the disease early. The whole society, especially parents, needs to be aware of scoliosis diagnosis and treatment. Although there is no way to prevent scoliosis, early detection and early treatment can prevent or reduce the risk of scoliosis to adolescents’ crestal health.