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 2 children in every 1000 will ultimately need surgery.
In more than 90% of cases children are otherwise entirely normal and their spinal column buckles during growth rather like a tent pole growing too fast for the guy ropes. This type of scoliosis we call 'idiopathic' from the Greek word for self-generating. Much less common causes are conditions where, for example, the guy ropes don’t work properly, such as cerebral palsy or muscular dystrophy.