Scoliosis Update: Part 3 of 3 In other news, prior to the trip, I ran across an article that mentioned that curves like Brittany’s (left thoracic convex) are relatively rare and much more likely to be caused by an underlying condition such as tumors, cysts, Chiari Malformation, and some other nasty’s I’ll not list. So, I wrote up a “case” for doing an MRI on Brittany to rule these items out, siting various studies available on pubmed, etc. The doctor at Children’s was convinced that it was worth ruling these things out, so Brittany had the MRI and, thankfully, it came out negative. Yay! I also wrote up, and presented, a case for investigating whether Amber’s scoliosis could be related to her JRA instead of being purely idiopathic. In addition to being poly-arthritic (a big red flag in itself), comparison of the apexes of Amber’s ilium reveals a 1.0cm height variance. (meaning one leg appears to be 1cm shorter than the other, though the variance may not be in the legs themselves). The doctor agreed to the possibility, but dismissed my concern saying he’d treat the condition the same way either way, so the distinction is moot. However, on further reflection and research, I disagree. I will point out to him, at the next opportunity, that Amber’s condition could be caused by a knee or hip adduction contracture which would be directly, and more effectively, treatable, as opposed to treating the symptom of the resultant scoliosis… meaning she could have a better long-term prognosis and get out of the brace sooner (maybe another year instead of 2, I speculate). Well, believe it or not, that’s the very short version of the recent developments.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 21:12:27 +0000
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