Using Schroth physical therapy and home exercises and 3D-CADCAM Rigo-Cheneau bracing, we are able to treat the very large majority of our scoliosis patients at Hey Clinic with conservative therapy, and life-long follow-up. However, there still is a small percentage of patients whose curves progress and/or the patients have pain and/or posture issues where they want to hear more about surgical options for treating their scoliosis. One of the most common questions I've received over the years caring for children, adolescents and adults with scoliosis is this:  "Will I be able to bend afte ..read more

This is a guest post from Colleen Skeete and Jonathan Revoir, scoliosis patients and CareGuard Institute interns. Welcome to Scoliosis Awareness Month! Our spine is the core of our body that holds us up for our lifetime, and we can take it for granted. Early screening in children and life-long monitoring in adults is important to take care of your spine, so that you can maintain a good quality of life. 4 degree Left Lumbar Angle Trunk Rotation (ATR) It is easy to screen yourself, your children, or your friends from home by using a scoliometer or a  bubble-level app on your sma ..read more

What a wild couple of weeks it has been here, and around the country and the world with coronavirus. Here is a short video on how we are innovating to help give patients and families more choices to how to screen for scoliosis and other deformities, and be able to get the necessary imaging when necessary for initial diagnosis so that early treatment can be initiated, such as bracing and Schroth physiotherapeutic exercises and physical therapy. Check out the video, and we'll have more innovations coming up to share, including how to screen yourself or your own children for scoliosis using a ..read more

There has been a lot of buzz in recent years about the Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery (MISS), and in some cases minimally invasive scoliosis surgery, using small puncture incisions, XLIF's, slipping rods under the skin, and/or going anteriorly with tethering through the chest. But many people have not heard much about the LEAST invasive scoliosis "surgery", which really isn't surgery at all, which is Schroth Physiotherapeutic Scoliosis-Specific Exercises (PSSE), and 3D CADCAM bracing, also known as Rigo-Cheneau Bracing.  Even I was not aware of these two techniques, that both emanated from ..read more

It was a beautiful sunny fall afternoon in our Hey Clinic Great Room today when I bumped into Andrea, one of my scoliosis moms.  She had to show me something her daughter Leah made this week in school for Thanksgiving.  She showed me the "Tbankfulness Tree" Leah made, and a long list of things she is thankful for.  Take a look -- I'm the brown leaf toward the middle of the tree!  How cool!  I asked if it would be OK to share these thankgivings with all of you, and Andrea replied: "Absolutely you can share it! Leah thinks the world of you and your talks with her have helped her immensely! Than ..read more

Last Friday, I had an incredible reunion with one of my former scoliosis patients - Layla - who is now a physician assistant student at Campbell!  I went there last Friday to do a lecture on the importance of compassion as the driving force for resilience through medical training and years of care for others, and also how compassion is the driving force for quality and safety and lean improvement.  Several of my medical student mentorees from this past summer's Better Samaritan Institute summer program were there as well as I shared personal stories from my own journey from being a patient, to ..read more

Rachel is a wonderful 15 yo young lady from Tennessee diagnosed with scoliosis just a couple of years ago with a curve in the upper 40's, possibly low 50's.  She then had follow-up X-Rays just recently when experiencing increased pain, and her curves had jumped up to around 90 degrees x2. Her family made the long drive from Tennessee to Raleigh this Saturday just ahead of the huge snowstorm that crashed in on us here in the Triangle, dumping 10 inches on Sunday, and another 3 inches on Monday!   They stayed at the hotel across the street from Duke Raleigh Hospital, and luckily I was able to ..read more

I just saw 20 yo Hannah back for her 4 week postop visit, and she is one happy young lady!  I saw her a few weeks ago and she was completely "cattywampus" preop, several inches to one side with a thoracolumbar scoliosis and trunk shift and having quite a bit of pain.   For those who are not familiar with the medical term "cattywampus", you can google it, and Google the Answer Man says: "adjective. The definition of cattywampus, often spelled catawampus, is not lined up or not arranged correctly, or diagonally. An example of something cattywampus are the positions of the items on the top o ..read more

There is a growing excitement at Hey Clinic over the last few months with our Schroth Physiotherapeutic Scoliosis Specific Exercises (PSSE) and in-house fabrication of 3D CADCAM personalized (Rigo-like)  approach!!!   Alma, or Schroth therapist is doing a super job with a big smile, and is well loved by everyone -- keeping it simple, and motivating the troops.  She's  working evenings, Saturdays and some days to meet the need.  I think we are going to need 1 or 2 more Schroth therapists this fall.  Let me know if you are interested in getting trained in our December course if you are a physica ..read more