I'm doctor Noojan Kazemi and I'm a neurosurgeon at UAMS.
Scoliosis is a complex spine condition that we treat
here at UAMS. As spine surgeons we see
these patients from childhood onto
the adult stages of the condition. It really is,
it refers to a deformity on the spine.
One of the most common types of scoliosis
is adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. This
most frequently happens in females
in the teenage years and as they grow
the condition can either be arrested or
it can progress, and become severe. One of the most common presentations of
scoliosis is pain but
also it is deformity. It's it's the cosmetic aspect of their
deformity.
Treatment involves often monitoring and understanding
the degree of the deformity and observing it over time,
and deciding whether it is stable
or perhaps even improved, or it is
becoming progressive and needs surgical treatment If that is appropriate.
When we decide to operate on these patients
we take into account the degree of the deformity and the
correction that we can achieve.
So in that population
it is a particular type of treatment
that we administer to these patients depending on
the severity and the type of scoliosis they have.
Some of the patience that we see have neuromuscular conditions
and their scoliosis results as their inability
for their muscles to correct their spine and so
their deformities are often very severe; and we correct that through surgery.
I also see scoliosis or imbalance
of the spine in the adult population
and that can be either from patients who had scoliosis
as teenagers or adolescence who did not have treatment for it, but
progressed slowly into the adult years. And overtime
our spine undergoes degeneration in all of us.
Our muscles become weaker, often we gain weight,
and that puts undue pressure on the spine.
We tend to lose height as we age as well and that is as a result of these
conditions. And this can
not only worsen the deformity of scoliosis, but it can also
result in nerve compression which leads to pain.
So I treat patients such as adults who have this deformity
and their deformity you can imagine as a little bit more fixed.
And so we need other ways of treating
their spinal and balance to bring it back into balance and to alleviate their
pain.
So there's a range of different causes behind scoliosis in different age groups
and as spine surgeons I think our role
is in being knowledgeable and judicious in understanding which patient
deserves which kind of treatment, so
targeting our treatment. And then once we have a treatment plan,
executing it to the best of our ability, with all the resources that we have here
at a large academic tertiary referral center.