Conservative treatment makes use of physiotherapy or physiotherapy combined with bracing in order to make scoliosis- specific postural corrections.
Conservative management experience shows that it is possible to halt scoliosis progression and reduce existant curves and the disturbances associated with postural asymmetry, if the treatment is applied before the end of the growing period. Adult patients with scoliosis can also benefit from conservative management by eliminating disturbances in lung and heart function and aleeving or eliminating pain syndromes, if present.
The scoliotic postural disturbance (functional scoliosis) is also best treated with specific, asymmetric exercise, in order to prevent a functional disturbance turning into a full-blown structural scoliosis. Postural asymmetries should be averted before performing symmetrical exercises.
Scoliosis is prone to progressionprogression especially during the growth spurt. If during this time the curve has already reached a Cobb angleof 20-25⁰, physiotherapy is combined with corrective brace-wear. Physiotherapy may be more or less necessary the rest of the patient’s life.
For more than 80 years, the Asklepios-Katharina-Schroth-Clinic for Spinal Deformities in Bad Sobernheim, Germany has successfully treated scoliosis conservatively using the Schroth Method, which is now also available in Latvia and Estonia.