Scoliosis is a lateral (sideways) curvature of the spine. We have looked at more than 16,000 children in Leeds as part of a school screening programme and one child in ten will have an obvious bendy back. Half of these are minor curvatures secondary to legs of a slightly different length. The other half, however, do have the potential to progress with growth to produce a hunch back type of deformity.
Fortunately, only about two children in every 1000 will ultimately need surgery.
Many people haven't heard about scoliosis. For parents to be told there is a problem with their child's spine can be a tremendous shock immediately raising questions such as how, why, is it my fault? Throughout this website, we will try to answer as many questions as possible so that fear and worry can be reduced as much as possible.
We should look at the normal spine to get a better understanding of scoliosis. Our information pages on this website have more details on the signs and symptoms of scoliosis, and offers a viewpoint from both a former patient, and parent.