Incidence rate and evolution

Statistically, 5 to 7 % of youngsters suffer from idiopathic scoliosis during their growth, in the ratio of 7 to 1 of women compared to men; only 5 cases out of 1,000 evolve to heavy worsening, so much so that – when not treated – they make it necessary to have recourse to surgery; in the other cases, the scoliosis remains stable or gets worse very slowly, with needing any care if the clinical test (as we will see further on, it is the hump itself that provides a control, on its evolution over time through its measurement). John Cobb, the master of orthopaedics, already stressed that the treatment of scoliosis only needs – in most cases - “a strong therapy of waiting”. However, in a few subjects (this is confirmed by statistics) scoliosis tends to get worse over time, whence the need to stop its evolution.
The statistic data mentioned above strongly reassess the incidence rate of idiopathic scoliosis, which is still today exaggerated in terms of frequency and therapeutic prescriptions, due to an inaccurate diagnosis of the evolutionary potentials of the disease.
In 95 % of cases the disease starts with the first signs of puberty of the backbone (on the average 10 yy in a little girl and 12 yy in a little boy), continuing its evolution throughout the period of the quick pubertal growth up to the bone maturation of the rachis (it lasts 4-5 years and ends – on the average – between two and three yy after the beginning of menses in girls and the voice change in boys). Ni the remaining cases (5%), scoliosis can reveal itself in other growth periods, from childhood to puberty, knowing also that the furthest from the end of growth the appearance of scoliosis is, the higher the risk of a worsening is.
In school screening, these latter data lead us to observe more carefully pupils in lower secondary schools and possibly in the last class of primary schools.