For people with scoliosis, the unnatural curvature of the spine can cause great pain and make it difficult to breathe. Doctors have traditionally treated this disease with braces and spinal fusion surgery. But a series of exercises, developed in the 1920s, has proven effective in reversing the abnormal curve and alleviating some of the symptoms associated with this chronic disease.
The Schroth Method was invented by Katharina Schroth in the 1920s and further developed by her daughter, Christa Lehnert-Schroth. By the 1960s, it became the standard non-surgical treatment for scoliosis in Germany. Referred to as a physiotherapeutic treatment system, The Schroth Method includes a series of isometric and other exercises to strengthen or lengthen asymmetrical muscles in the body. The exercises are tailored to each individual, and patients are encouraged to do the regime for about a half hour each day.
A series of studies was conducted from 1924 to 1972 to show that The Schroth Method is effective in halting the curve progression, reducing pain, partly reversing the abnormal curvatures, improving posture and appearance, preventing surgery and increasing vital capacity, which is the amount of air you can exhale after a full inhalation. One of those studies showed that The Schroth Method can also help some people avoid surgery. Conducted at Dr. Manuel Rigo's clinic in Barcelona, patients typically received bracing and physical therapy for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS.) Of 106 braced cases, only six, or 5.6 percent, underwent spinal fusion surgery. That is compared with published data from an Irish center with a policy of non-intervention that reported surgeries in 28.1 percent of their AIS patients.
Another study showed Schroth patients are much less likely to suffer from curve progression. Two independent patient groups were matched by age and sex at diagnosis and analyzed using the outcome parameter - the incidence of progression. The curve on untreated patients progressed 1.5 to 2.9 times more than those treated at the Katharina-Schroth clinic in Bad Sobernheim, Germany. A third study proved that 80 percent of patients either had their pain reduced or eliminated using the Schroth program. In 1989, 311 scoliosis patients at the Katharina-Schroth clinic filled out pain questionnaires at the beginning and end of their treatment program. On average, the pain severity reported dropped from 2.7 to 1.1 on a scale of 1 to 5 with 0 equaling no pain. Nearly half of the respondents reported that they received total pain relief from the program.
Treatment is not uniformly successful in every case, but success is influenced by the age of the patient, the patient's compliance in performing the exercises, the degree of the curvature and the therapist's diagnostic and treatment skill. Adult and post-operative patients benefit from The Schroth Method as well as children and adolescents. Details of the program are outlined in the book, The Schroth Method: Three-Dimensional Treatment for Scoliosis, by Christa Lehnert-Schroth. The book contains descriptions and photographs of more than 100 scoliosis exercises.
Lara Mossa Stump
and
Hulet Smith, OT
