The Future of Scoliosis Treatment?
Dynamic scoliosis bracing has been at the forefront of scoliosis treatment for the past couple of decades because it can help strengthen the spine instead of causing muscle weakness like a static brace can do. Static braces are hard plastic shells that act like body casts and immobilize the spine and can cause muscle atrophy.
Current forms of dynamic bracing like SpineCor do not have such issues as they move with the body, but new prototype of an interactive dynamic scoliosis brace developed by mechanical engineers at Columbia University may take this concept to the next level and become the future of scoliosis treatment. (Click on Link Above to Watch Video)
While this prototype exoskeleton is still rather clunky and impractical to use on a daily basis at the moment, it does offer a glimpse of improvements in treatment for scoliosis patients in the future.
One of the most exciting and potentially game-changing benefits of such a brace would be the ability to both sense, measure and treat stiffness in the spine, especially early on before it becomes too big of an issue and becomes a driving factor of the progression of the curve.