Scoliosis
Essay Preview: Scoliosis
Report this essay
Scoliosis
Scoliosis has been dated back towards the early 3500 BC. Hippocrates of Kos was a Greek physician who described scoliosis as a spine deformity. Scoliosis is a spine disorder that causes the spine to have a curvature causing it to curve whether to the right or to the left. Any part of the spine can have a curvature but the most common regions include the chest area and the lower back area. These can be described a thoracic scoliosis, or lumbar scoliosis.
In most cases, scoliosis is idiopathic, meaning there are no known causes. However, there are some cases in which doctors have theorized causes for their patients. Neuromuscular conditions also cause scoliosis and is found that twenty-percent of cases are caused by this. Neuromuscular conditions affect the nerves and the muscles. In these cases, the child may not be able to walk to stay upright, which results in the prevention of not allowing the spine to grow properly. A rare cause of scoliosis includes congenital scoliosis, and this is when at birth, your bones do not form normally nor did they while still in the womb. Genes can also play a part in the causes of contracting scoliosis. It is not uncommon to see a child whose family history involved scoliosis, be diagnosed later in life with scoliosis. Some more causes include, bad posture, the improper overuse of backpacks and satchels, and leg length. If one leg is longer than the other, it may result in scoliosis because walking unevenly causes your spine to bend in different, abnormal ways. Scoliosis is more commonly found in women or girls than in men or boys.
An easy often used method of identifying scoliosis is by observing of the spine looks abnormal or like it has a curvature in it. The change in its curving changes slowly so it can often be missed causing it turn into a more severe case. Scoliosis in children show the symptoms of uneven shoulders, the head may not be centered with the pelvis, the rib cage may not be symmetrical, one hip may be more prominent than the other, clothes do not hang properly, the child may be leaning more to one side, and the leg length might not be the same. If the scoliosis is more severe, it may cause the lungs and the heart to work extra hard just to function properly making it a little hard to breathe at times. Most scoliosis patients have described their disorder as painless, however some do experience back pain and abdominal pain.
Receiving treatment for your case of scoliosis will be different than another