Scoliosis Back Pain

Scoliosis back pain is a great conundrum for dorsopathy patients, since this spinal curvature condition is often blamed for sourcing symptoms, yet treatments are rarely, if ever, successful. Scoliosis describes a spinal abnormality in which the patient suffers an atypical side to side curvature of the spine at one or more locations. Some patients have a single abnormal curve, generally referred to as a "C" curve, while others have 2 or more abnormal curves, generally referred to as an "S" curve. Scoliosis can be suspected from visual observation and examination, but can only be accurately diagnosed using specialized imaging, such as x-ray or MRI technology.

Scoliosis is one of the most common of all structural abnormalities in the human spine. It can strike anywhere in the spinal column and may be insignificant or extreme. Scoliosis is measured in degrees, just like an angle, and this measurement is used to diagnose potential health consequences of the individual expression. There are many different types of scoliosis, including congenital varieties, idiopathic varieties, juvenile varieties and adult degenerative varieties. In most cases, scoliosis exists alone, but in other cases, other atypical spinal curvature issues may also be present. In these cases, the usual accompanying curvatures may include hyperlordosis, hypolordosis, hyperkyphosis or hypokyphosis.

Scoliosis back pain is a classification of dorsopathy symptoms theorized to exist as a direct result of the abnormal curvature. There is no doubt that many patients with scoliosis do have back pain, just as a large percentage of the adult population without scoliosis also suffers painful spinal syndromes. Back pain is an epidemic in our modern healthcare system and is becoming ever more the burden year over year. So, it is worth analyzing the eternal question, "Is scoliosis the actual source of pain in these patients, or not?"

The answer is surprisingly simple... YES and NO. There is no absolute answer to the question, as spinal curvatures are highly individualized conditions and each must be studied carefully in order to answer this query for each affected patient. In my vast experience working with back pain patients, I come across thousands of patients whose pain has been blamed partially or completely on atypical spinal curvatures. Here are my thoughts, based on practical experience, clinical statistics and treatment results...

The greatest number of scoliosis patients have mild curvatures. I do not see these minor issues as any cause for alarm or concern, almost without exception. Over 90% of affected back pain sufferers diagnosed with scoliosis fall into this category. In these cases, the diagnosis of curvature as the source of pain is obviously incorrect, since patients do not respond to scoliosis treatments, but can often be cured using other types of unrelated modalities. In these patients, the scoliosis is purely coincidental to the symptoms, much akin to herniated discs or degenerative disc disease in other misdiagnosed patients. The next category of scoliosis sufferers demonstrate moderate curvatures which are rarely to blame for pain. Some patients may have minor occasional pain or even chronic dull aches, but most should not experience any acute or severe chronic pain often blamed on their curvatures. Once again, the vast majority are at least partially misdiagnosed by placing the painful burden blame on the curvature issues. Between the 2 categories of mild and moderate spinal curvature, this accounts for some 98% of diagnosed patients...

Serious and extreme scoliosis conditions are mostly symptomatic. These patients may suffer from a multitude of possible painful events in the spine, including spinal and foraminal stenosis, advanced osteoarthritic change and even internal organ compression problems. Blaming these symptoms on scoliosis is generally universal and in almost every case, absolutely correct. However, just remember that this only holds true for the truly worst cases of side to side curvature, which accounts for less than 2% of the total diagnosed population.

To summarize, I urge all patients with mild and moderate forms of scoliosis to reconsider the validity of their diagnostic theory if their pain has been blamed wholly on their curvature issues. Patients who embrace these incorrect blame patterns rarely find lasting (or any) relief and usually end up victims of failed back surgery syndrome due to barbaric and unnecessary spinal fusion procedures.