It is essential for parents to detect possible scoliosis as early as possible. The Yves Cotrel Foundation and the Academy of Medicine give them the keys to do this screening.
Parents have a fundamental role to play for the backs of their children. They are responsible for screening their children for scoliosis. According to the Academy of Medicine and the Yves Cotrel Foundation, which specializes in spinal diseases, they are in the best position to spot this deformation of the spine.
The whole difficulty lies in the fact that the symptoms are often absent, and that scoliosis affects children in perfect health. It is therefore necessary to control their back even without symptoms, from an early age, in order to detect a possible scoliosis, because when the deformity of the back is already important, the treatments become difficult and the results disappointing.
The Yves Cotrel Foundation points out that it is essential that scoliosis be detected early in order to avoid an aggravation of the curvature and significant and visible deformities as well as a loss of spinal mobility which could only be treated later by surgery to weld the deformed vertebrae together.
2 to 3% of the population affected by scoliosis
Scoliosis is a deformation of the spine that affects 2 to 3% of the population, mostly girls, and develops during childhood. The most common is idiopathic scoliosis, the cause of which remains unknown, even if the genetic background cannot be ruled out.
To detect an abnormality, parents should look at their child’s back, who should stand up shirtless, legs straight and outstretched with feet together and hands tilted forward. The back should in principle be straight, if this is not the case and one part of the spine is higher than the other, a doctor should be consulted who will assess the extent of the scoliosis and its stage of development. (watch the video below). The doctor can then order additional examinations to confirm the diagnosis, by performing, among other things, a radiography of the spine.
Video source: Academy of Medicine and Cotrel Foundation
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