Brace Treatment for Scoliosis in Children under 10 years of Age

To investigate the effect of brace treatment in children aged under 10 years, we studied 12 children with idiopathic scoliosis and 19 with congenital scoliosis.Of the 7 with idiopathic scoliosis who followed the brace treatment faithfully, several kinds of improvement in the curvature were noted. In comparison curvature progression of occurred in the 5 cases who stopped using the brace midway through their treatment. The 19 cases of congenital scoliosis were classified as follows: one hemivertebra: 4 cases, two hemivertebra: 4 cases, many hemivertebrae: 6 cases, and unsegmented unilateral bar: 5 cases.Cuvature did not progress or improve in the 1 or 2 hemivertebra groups, but in other groups progression occurred in spite of the strict brace treatment. We found that the disc deformity around the deformed vertebrae in congenital scoliosis was corrected by the brace treatment.However it is still not clear whether or not bony deformities can be corrected at this time.