The design of the Pneu-Scoliosis Vest allows us to be considerably more aggressive and effective in working with scoliosis patients.
The unweighted treadmill activities will have some of the same goals as our regular program (biomechanics, recruitment patterns, & etc.) but the ability to utilize specific vertebral level lateral forces (right or left) in conjunction with our vertical unweighting provides us with a very useful new tool.
To give you an idea how we use this, lets assume a patient with a right thoracic convexity with an apex at T8, a divergence at T3 and a convergence at L1.
We first of all will position and secure the vest so the single (red) strap will be at or slightly below T8. The attachment points (blue straps) for the opposing straps will be at approximately T3 & L1. In addition to this we will employ a plastic shield over the left rib cage so the force of the red strap as it transfers from a horizontal to a vertical vector will not impede the rib cage as we seek to reduce the rotation and scoliosis curve.
We will become more aggressive force wise and time wise with this as the patients� tolerance builds.
Our feeling at this time, with a very low population to base it on, is that we will get results both quicker and easier with as good or better long-term maintenance incorporating this treatment with our current protocol.
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