When viewed from the front, a healthy spine is completely straight. “For most patients with what we call idiopathic scoliosis, the curvature is on the right side of the thoracic spine, or the upper back,” says Cho.
“If the curve is severe, you can see a rib hump.” If left untreated, severe cases of scoliosis can worsen over time, impairing heart and lung function. “In this country, it rarely comes to that because we get patients diagnosed and correct the deformity surgically before it gets that bad,” says Cho.
The underlying cause of scoliosis remains largely unknown. “We call it idiopathic because we don’t know the cause,” says Cho. “There’s no one gene that causes it, and it looks like a cluster of genes are involved.”
Most scoliosis becomes apparent when children are going through a growth spurt. “Although most children are diagnosed between ages 10 to 18, in some cases the curvature appears in children as young as a few months.”
Another form of scoliosis strikes adults as the result of aging. “As the spine degenerates with age, adults whose spine was straight can develop a curvature,” says Cho. “This is not an uncommon problem, especially in older women with osteoporosis and collapsed discs.” Doctors don’t yet have a way to predict who will develop degenerative scoliosis and who won’t.
Signs and symptoms:
There are two common pathways for diagnosing scoliosis. “Typically, it’s either found during health screenings at school or a parent notices the child has a hump in the back,” says Cho.
