The Relationship Between Compliance of Physiotherapeutic Scoliosis Specific Exercises and Curve Regression With Mild to Moderate Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis

Every year, the Italian Scoliosis Study Group selects the best published papers on conservative spine treatment from the global scientific literature.
Here is the abstract from one of these papers. 

The Relationship Between Compliance of Physiotherapeutic Scoliosis Specific Exercises and Curve Regression With Mild to Moderate Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis

Yunli Fan, Michael Kt To, Guan-Ming Kuang, Jason Pui Yin Cheung

Global Spine J. 2022 Jun 28;21925682221109565.doi:10.1177/21925682221109565. PMID: 35762385

Abstract

Study design: Retrospective Case-control Study.

Objectives: To determine the requisite exercise compliance (EC) of physiotherapeutic scoliosis-specific exercise (PSSE) for achieving curve regression; to analyze whether the apical translation (AT), apical wedging (AW), and apical rotation (AR) of the major curve improve with regression effect.

Methods: Between 2019 and 2021, a total of 763 patients undertook a 6-month PSSE treatment. This resulted 426 compliable and 302 uncompliable patients remained available for analysis. For compliable patients, 213 with curve regression and 213 age-/sex-matched with curve stabilization/deterioration at the 6-month, were eligible for regression analysis to detect the relationship between EC and regression effect at the 6-month; receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis and Youden’s index were applied to identify the threshold of EC leading to curve regression at the 6-month. The AT, AW, and AR of the major curve were compared before and after 6-month PSSE to investigate the radiographic parameters that improved with regression effect.

Results: EC was correlated with regression effect (odds ratio: 19.9, 95% confidence interval: 11.3-35.0, P < .001) and the cutoff threshold of EC was 4.4 h/week for 6 months to realize such an effect. AT was improved by 47.6% with curve regression, in which 152 cases remained curve regression and no case progressed into the operative threshold at the 1.5- to 2-year.

Conclusions: A 6-month PSSE protocol of 4.4 hours per week was potentially leading to curve regression in treating mild to moderate scoliosis. An improvement in AT of the major curve was observed with the regression effect.

Keywords: adolescent idiopathic scoliosis; apical rotation; apical translation; apical wedging; cobb angle; curve regression; exercise compliance; physiotherapeutic scoliosis specific exercise.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35762385/