Since the beginning of the creators of the SpineCor brace are committed to research and further development of the brace and associated scoliosis treatment programs. Their research department at St. Justine’s Hospital in Montreal Canada has collected data on each of the patients they have treated with the SpineCor brace since 1993.
In scoliosis treatment it is not only important for the correction or stabilization of the curvature to found at the stopping of the brace but also to demonstrate the long term effectiveness it is important to examine if the correction will be maintained for years after the brace was discontinued.
SpineCor Research Studies
1. A study entitled SpineCor – A Non-Rigid Brace for the Treatment of AIS: Post Treatment Results was performed at the Medical School of the University of Montreal in 2002 and was reported in the Europeon Spine Journal in 2003. The results of this study showed that of the patients that the probability of success (stabilization or correction of the curvature or minimal progression to avoiding surgery) was greater for those patients the longer they stayed in the program. It also showed continued improvement in many of the curvatures even after 2 years of completion of the SpineCor program. Of those patients who reached the 2 year mark 93% of the patients had stabilization or correction of their scoliosis curvatures.
The Scoliosis Research Society (SRS) published their guidelines for all future studies of Idiopathic Scoliosis treatments in 2006 that standardized the outcome measurements so that different scoliosis treatments could be analyzed and compared side by side. These Guidelines also have strict inclusion and exclusion criteria that only allow the study of the group of patients with the highest progression risk.
2. A long term outcome study entitled Effectiveness of the SpineCor Brace Based on the New Standardized Criteria Proposed by the Scoliosis Research Society for Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis. (of 171 of these patients who fit the study criteria was performed and the preliminary results in 2007 showed great promise for the SpineCor braces long term effectiveness with the majority of patients (59%) showing that they had either correction or stabilization of their curvatures. In this study, of the 47 patients that had completed their SpineCor treatment and had been out of the brace for 2 years 98% of them were able to avoid surgery.
3. Using the results in the above mentioned study the first study comparing the results from the dynamic SpineCor scoliosis brace with two other Static scoliosis braces was done that followed the SRS Guidelines. It compared the 3 popular scoliosis brace treatments. The results published in the Journal of Pediatric Orthopedics in 2007 shows a very clear difference in outcome for three different treatment methods.
The results of this study showed a dramatic difference in treatment outcomes for each of the brace treatments. The SpineCor brace was found to be 76.5% effective in avoiding surgery, while the Providence brace was found to be only 40% effective and the TLSO brace was only15% success (by SRS definitions) This meant that the SpineCor brace was found to be 4 times more effective than TLSO in stopping progression of the curve.
4. A study entitled: A New Concept for the Non-Invasive Treatment of Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis: The Corrective Movement Principle Integrated in the SpineCor System. Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology. 2008. 3:3, 112-119) This study showed that of the 349 patients that were treated at the research hospital in Montreal Canada 248 of them fit into the research criteria. Of those 74.2 % had either stabilization or correction of their curvatures. Only 2.7 % required surgery at the conclusion of their treatment. Of the 248 patients that continued in the study to reach follow up visit at the 2 Year post treatment mark 89.1% of them had sustained positive results (52% Correction and 37.1% Stabilization) Of that group 14.5% had continued improvement of their scoliosis curvatures after stopping the use of the brace, while only 10.9% of the patients had worsening of their curves.
Of the 117 patients that reached the 5 Year post treatment mark in the Study 91.5% of patients had a positive outcome. (58.2% Correction and 33.3% Stabilization)
Of this group 33.3%* of the patients had their curvatures improve beyond what they had achieved after stopping the use of the brace. (*This shows that the positive effects of the SpineCor brace’s changing of the neuromuscular re-patterning continue long after the cessation of wearing the brace.)
The commitment to research in the effectiveness of the SpineCor brace continues. As of 2010 over 950 patients have gone through treatment at the research center in Montreal and their results have been cataloged.
Additional Studies of the effectiveness of the SpineCor brace have been done by independent scoliosis researchers from around the world. They have come to similar conclusions about the effectiveness of the SpineCor brace. Here is a list of these studies:
- A Retrospective Analysis of the SpineCor Brace Treatment at the Sheffield Children’s Hospital, United Kingdom Reported in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery in 2006.
- Preliminary Results of the Use of the SpineCor Brace in Katowice (Poland) in the Annals of Academic Medicine Siles in 2007.
- The Early Results of the Treatment of Idiopathic Scoliosis Using the Dynamic SpineCor Brace. In Medical Rehabilitation in 2008.
- Initial Results of SpineCor Treatment of Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis in Seville Spain. In Scoliosis in 2009.
- Use of the SpineCor Dynamic Corrective Brace in Greece: A Preliminary Report in Scoliosis 2009.