Biofeedback Posture Training for Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis Patient

Scoliosis is an abnormal lateral deviation of the spine. Over 10 degrees of lateral curvature in the anteroposterior plane is already regarded as abnormal and scoliosis by the American Scoliosis Research Society. Scoliosis can be congenital, developmental, or degenerative. However, over 65% of the scoliosis cases were idiopathic. Scoliosis generally develops in the thoracic spine and/or the thoracolumbar area of the spine. One of the factors of scoliosis is the skeletal muscle around the aforementioned area of the spine. If the muscle strength between the left and right paraspinal muscles is imbalanced, internal pressure will develop and cause scoliosis. Though the risk of curve progression is the highest during puberty, adolescents with mild scoliosis (Cobb’s angle between 10 and 19) are generally closely monitored. With the increasing mobile phone usage among adolescents, it is very likely that adolescents with mild scoliosis develop poor posture during their prolonged screen time. This may affect the skeletal muscle development in the spine, causing an imbalance between the left and right paraspinal muscles, further accelerating the curve progression of scoliosis. To slow down or prevent the curve progression, biofeedback posture training has been developed by our research team. Early adolescents sat in front of a computer screen with animated videos as biofeedback to monitor their muscle activities of the paraspinal muscles. They underwent 30 sessions of biofeedback posture training, each session consisting of 3 minutes baseline assessment and 5 trials of 5-minute posture training.Currently, 18 adolescents with mild scoliosis have completed our training. 13 out 18 of them have their spine curve progressed less than 5 Cobb’s angle. In addition, 6 of them even reduced their spine curve by more than 5 Cobb's angle.