SPINE CONFIGURATION AND RANGE OF MOTION IN NORMALS AND SCOLIOTICS

The purposes of this study were twofold: to observe the effects of var ious seated postures on normal and scoliotic spines, and to investigat e thoracolumbar range of motion in both normal and scoliotic spines. E leven adolescent females with mild adolescent idiopathic scoliosis inv olving the thoracolumbar spine, and 20 healthy female-subjects partici pated in the study. The Iowa Anatomical Position System was used to an alyse the lumbar spine curvature. The five upright postures examined w ere standing, side-bending left, side-bending right, trunk extension, and trunk flexion. The seated postures consisted of erect sitting, slo uched sitting, and each leg crossed two different ways in both erect a nd slouched positions. All seated postures were found to lie well with in the extreme passive ranges of motion established by side-bending le ft, side-bending right, extension, and flexion. The thoracolumbar rang es of motion for scoliotics and normals were similar. Seated postures decreased the lumbar lordosis exhibited in standing for both scoliotic s and normals. In general, the variety of seated postures had similar effects in normals and scoliotics, and individual seated postures vari ed little from each other in their effects on the thoracolumbar spine. All seated postures increased the lateral curvature in scoliotics. Re levance This study of both normal and scoliotics demonstrated that eve n the perceived undesirable seating postures used spinal configuration s that were well within available motion envelope. Perhaps advocating strict erect seating postures for scoliotics is ill-founded.