Questions and Answers

The biggest variables affecting recovery time are the nature of the surgery and the condition before surgery. Here are some general guidelines on what to expect. Discectomy: Recovery is typically fairly quick. Some pain, numbness, or weakness in the nerve that was compressed is normal and should clear up in a few weeks. Laminectomy or […] Read More

Technology and treatment options for patients have now changed dramatically for the better after a scoliosis operation. After a routine scoliosis surgery, patients are admitted to the intensive care unit, where focused nursing care speeds recovery. These angels take excellent care of our patients, and so both the patient and their family know that there’s […] Read More

Adults do sometimes need more than one procedure. Specifically, they require some kind of procedure done from the front and from the back at the same time. Sometimes this can be done in a single combination operation, but in some cases, the two procedures are done separately. Read More

Scoliosis surgeries are complex, and there are many steps to each operation. The operation in children takes from two to three hours. In adults, it takes a little longer, from about four to six hours. If surgeries from the front and back are required at the same time, the surgery will take additional time. Read More

Information about scoliosis continues to change. For instance, years ago, the accepted teaching was that once you reach adulthood, the curves become static and do not progress. For most patients, scoliosis does not progress. However, there’s a subgroup of individuals where the curve continues to progress in adulthood. There’s been an evolution in what is […] Read More

The incidence of scoliosis in men and women occurs almost evenly. However, if a female has scoliosis as an adolescent or young adult, the progression rate will occur seven to eight times more frequently. Unfortunately, we don’t understand yet what issues cause that differential progression. Read More

The vast majority of patients with scoliosis fall under the category of idiopathic scoliosis. That means, simply, we don’t know what causes it. We don’t have unified field theories that tell us the mechanism. However, there are those cases that are neurological, where there’s some kind of spinal cord or brain injury, cerebral palsy, poliomyelitis […] Read More

The research into the environmental causes of scoliosis continues, and while there are some provocative findings, the connections between a medication, a drug, or environmental factors are not established clearly yet. Read More

Polio was one of the most common neurological causes of scoliosis. Certainly, in the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s, when the great epidemics of polio occurred, there were more children with scoliosis. Now there are many of those polio patients in clinics with adult scoliosis as a result of their paralytic condition. Read More

Children can get scoliosis as a result of a spinal cord injury/trauma or as a result of a degenerative neurological condition that affects some unfortunate children. Often, kids who’ve either had a car accident or a motorcycle accident or some other trauma are treated. And as a result of a loss of normal muscle control […] Read More