The treatment of lateral curvature of the spine / Robert W. Lovett and James Warren Sever.

  • Lovett, Robert W. (Robert Williamson), 1859-1924.
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The treatment of lateral curvature of the spine / Robert W. Lovett and James Warren Sever. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    THE treat; RAL CURVATURE 10. OF THE SPINE ROBERT W. LOVETT, M.D. JAMES WARREN SEVER, M.D. BOSTON For many years the treatment of lateral curvature has been considered a muscular problem to be met by mus- cular therapeutics, that is, by gymnastics. Although this treatment has been on the whole successful when prop- erly carried out in the functional and milder structural types of the affection, it has been on the whole distinctly unsuccessful in the treatment of the moderate and severe types of scoliosis. The reason for this is that the treat- ment of the severer types of the affection is a bone and not a muscle problem, and must be carried out by means of sound surgical principles addressed to the reshaping of distorted bone. The treatment to be advocated in the present paper is based on these principles, and the results of the treatment are shown as carried out for three years in the lateral curvature clinic of the Children’s Hospital, Boston. There are two varieties of lateral curvature, (1) the postural or functional, and (2) the organic or struct- ural. The first variety can be quickly discussed and laid aside, for it is the second variety which constitutes our real problem. FUNCTIONAL 01? POSTURAL LATERAL CURVATURE The former is really nothing but a faulty attitude, and the latter would be a better name for it. The child, who is generally from 5 to 15 years old, stands with a slight or very moderate lateral curve of the whole spine, in most instances to the left. The left shoulder is higher than the other, and the trunk is displaced to the left, uncovering the right iliac crest and making it more prominent than the left. There is no marked rotation or twisting of the curved region, but when the child