There has been a lot of buzz in recent years about the Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery (MISS), and in some cases minimally invasive scoliosis surgery, using small puncture incisions, XLIF’s, slipping rods under the skin, and/or going anteriorly with tethering through the chest.
But many people have not heard much about the LEAST invasive scoliosis “surgery”, which really isn’t surgery at all – it is Schroth Physiotherapeutic Scoliosis-Specific Exercises (PSSE), and 3D CADCAM bracing, also known as Rigo-Cheneau Bracing. These two techniques emanated from Europe about 3-4 years ago, which has brought a transformation to the way we manage scoliosis at Hey Clinic. It has been a “game changer” for our team at Hey Clinic, and for hundreds of our pediatric, adolescent, young adult, middle-aged adult, and older adult patients.
Patient Success Story – 14 year old Regan
After finding out she had 29.5 degree scoliosis, 14 year old patient Regan, was very discouraged. Our team recommended Schroth physiotherapy. Regan rolled her eyes. She was not psyched. This whole thing was a complete downer. However, encouraged by one of our Schroth Therapists, Mariah, that we have seen many successes, she was willing to give it a shot.
Regan chose to do Schroth only for starters, and to hold off on the 3D CADCAM Brace, to see what type of correction we could get. For three months, Regan came to Hey Clinic once a week to learn how to do the PSSE exercises, and started doing them at home for about 20-25 minutes a day, 6 days a week. She actually began to actually LIKE to do the exercises, and was faithful to do them.
At the end of the three month period her family came back to the clinic to evaluate her results. Her mom and dad were both there…..and the results were….29.5 degrees, down to 11.6 degrees…. that is an 18 degree improvement in three months. And less pain!
With Schroth Physical Therapy and the 3D-CADCAM braces (when needed), we continue to see 90+ % success rates thus far with conservative management!
If you would like to be evaluated for conservative scoliosis treatment, please contact our office and we will schedule an appointment for you to see Dr. Hey or one of his team members.
