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| 50th ISSLS conference: what the Isico local hosts have to say
The ISSLS (International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine) international conference will celebrate its 50th anniversary in Italian style. Indeed, the conference, taking place from 27 to 31 May, is this year being held in Milan, home of the Isico headquarters. In fact, our scientific director, Prof. Stefano Negrini, and Dr Fabio Zaina,physical and rehabilitation medicine physicians in Isico, will be the local hosts for the event.
This is a significant opportunity not just because the society, created in 1974, holds its conference in Europe only once every 3-4 years, but also because it has always included only carefully selected members, among the world’s most important clinicians and scientists.
We put three questions to our own two specialists, so let’s see what they say about ISSLS and the event... |
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If you have severe scoliosis it's best to avoid pregnancy...
Absolutely not true! Scoliosis is not a condition that precludes pregnancy and the joy of bringing a child into the world.
Pregnancy is indeed a tricky period in which scoliosis is more likely to progress, and therefore it is certainly a good idea to keep your back situation monitored by a specialist during and after pregnancy. However, it is wrong to say that a woman with scoliosis should avoid having children. A severe lumbar curve may make it more complicated to administer an epidural, but that is a situation for the anaesthetist to manage.
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The 9th edition of the Scoliosis Master Course just opened! The IX edition of the Scoliosis Master Course organised by ISICO kicked off in January with an innovation!
For the first time the course started with a live introduction by Prof. Stefano Negrini. The presentation was publicly free for anyone interested in taking a sneak peek at our international course or for the latest unsure if they should enrol, as they can still register until February 10th on the course's dedicated website.
In the interim, here are some course statistics: more than 310 people have participated since 2016, representing 62 nations on every continent. Among them are 122 doctors, 102 PTs, 61 chiropractors, 23 orthotists, and other healthcare professionals.
Our course will run until November 2024 with 42 video lectures distributed into 15 modules and a live session every two or three weeks. For registration or more information: www.scoliosismaster.org |
| Isico, communication at the service of the patient
At Isico, we have always been very careful to support our patients not only in the clinic and daily treatments but also thanks to supporting tools, such as videos and publications.
And if we talk about publications, we cannot fail to mention our booklets, which have been translated into various languages. A fairy tale to colour and watch for our little patients, a booklet with many useful answers for the elder ones in therapy for their scoliosis, or advice for those who have just finished their treatment.
The Fairytale handbook, Do You Wear a Brace? Isico’s Advice and Life After Scoliosis Treatment are available on our website in several languages, besides English, from Bulgarian to Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Slovenian and Romanian. Discover them all and download your copy.
Would you also like to have an edition in your language? Well, do not hesitate to contact us for more information! |
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Isico replies: a new video series Isico's YouTube channel is enriched with a new video initiative designed to answer some of the most frequently asked questions or clarify doubts that have been requested over the years.
These new videos are designed to be enjoyed in a minimum time, just over or under 60 seconds. They draw on our specialists' clinical and scientific experience and have an exceptional mascot in a totally graphic guise: the Isico spineman.
We present the first video replying to "The brace at the end of growth: yes or no?". |
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Raquel Silva shares her experience In each number of our Newsletter, we present the experiences of how scoliosis is treated worldwide through an interview with one of our Online Master course participants. This month's interview is with the Senior MSK physiotherapist Raquel Silva from Portugal, currently working in a private Hospital
"In Portugal, my home country, the answers for scoliosis patients are unfortunately poor. Conservative management is based on old exercise and non-specific scoliosis concepts, as RPG and bracing also fall into these categories.
As a scoliosis patient myself since I was a teenager, I was told there was not much to do about it...". |
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| SEAS in adults
“You’re too old now”, “Your scoliosis has stopped now that you’ve finished growing”, “If you want to, do some exercise”… How often do adults with vertebral deformities like scoliosis or hyperkyphosis hear things like this?
Our patients often tell us that on reaching adulthood, they become aware of physical changes in their back, balance and height, and they therefore, start looking for answers and treatments.
The natural ageing process does not spare our back and changes are quite normal and to be expected: when they occur, it is important to get active in order to restore elasticity and strength to joints and muscles. But ageing is an entirely different situation compared with spine deviations in young people, in whom we seek to modify the bone structures and reduce the degrees of curvature. |
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Skiing, playing a musical instrument, horse riding or even jumping in the air - is it possible when wearing a brace? Yes, it is; the hundreds of patients who participated during the past 10 years in our Concorsetto, proved it.
For our monthly appointment find out on our YouTube channel @ScoliosisManager 14 years old Irene, ice skating in her brace-free hours... |
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Monia Lusini comments on a study about patient's perception of back pain
"How well can the clinician appreciate the patient's perception of the severity and impact of their back problem?" was recently published in the European Spine Journal. The study was carried out in two collaborating centres (in Switzerland and Italy) and involved five consultant spine specialists and 108 of their patients who had presented for treatment due to a low back disorder.
This cross-sectional study compares patients' and physicians' ratings made on the same day of the consultation for treatment... |
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Can a back become bent again once the treatment ends?
In our experience, documented in data we have published, it is certainly not true to say that spines treated for scoliosis almost always go back to being as bent as they were before, if not more so, once the treatment is over. If everything has been done correctly, the result will generally be stable, at least in the medium term.
Any deterioration after the end of therapy can depend on various factors, which may act individually or together: – the exercises weren’t done – the wrong exercises were done
– the brace treatment was ended too soon – the brace treatment was ended too quickly
For example, in a study we published, we showed that, with braces of comparable quality, worn for the same amount of time, patients who do the right exercises will have a substantially stable result after leaving the brace, whereas those whose exercises are not sufficiently specific will experience a deterioration of a few degrees, and those who do not do exercises will worsen by 5° or even as much as 10°.
The end of brace treatment is a crucial and delicate phase. As with the exercises, the use of the brace should be brought to an end extremely gradually. The spine must be allowed to become accustomed to being unsupported gradually, especially in the presence of a very severe curve.
Finally, it must be remembered that what happens in adulthood also depends on the end result obtained: those whose curve is under 30° at the end of treatment typically remain stable, whereas those with a curve greater than 50° generally find that the condition tends to worsen gradually over time, while final curves of between 30° and 50° are associated with a risk of deterioration, and this risk increases the greater the curve is. This is another thing that needs to be taken into account.
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Heath-related quality of life and functional outcomes in patients with congenital or juvenile idiopathic scoliosis after an average follow-up of 25 years: a cohort study
J Heemskerk, Nienke W Willigenburg , Ben E E M J Veraart, Eric W Bakker, René M Castelein, Mark C Altena, Diederik H R Kempen
Spine J. 2023 Nov 28:S1529-9430(23)03503-9.doi:10.1016/j. spinee.2023.11.012. |
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