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Column What is Lumbar Degenerative Scoliosis?

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Scoliosis is a condition in which the spine twists and turns from side to side due to aging and other factors.


Scoliosis is defined by the lumbar vertebrae being more than 10 degrees, and may appear after middle age, even though no prior scoliosis was ever detected during adolescence.
It can be caused by posture habits, leg crossing, daily lifestyle habits (stress, smoking), and leg length difference between the left and right leg.

The main symptoms are

  • Low back pain
  • Buttock pain
  • Lower limb pain

    When scoliosis is detected, intermittent claudication (a condition in which the patient feels pain and numbness when walking, but can walk again after a short rest) and sciatic nerve symptoms (pain and numbness along the sciatic nerve from the buttocks to the posterior and lateral sides of the lower extremities) may also be found. Other symptoms may occur as a result of trying to maintain balance, such as severe stiffness in the shoulders or symptoms around the knee joint due to a shift in center of gravity.

Treatment

Generally, treatment is conservative (rehabilitation, orthotics, and medication).
If symptoms do not improve with conservative treatment and the condition persists for a prolonged period, surgical procedures such as lumbar fusion are often suggested.
However, conventional surgical methods such as lumbar fusion and lumbar back decompression require removal of bone and sometimes immobilization, and the high surgical risk and high recurrence rate are problematic.

At our clinic, we focus on treatment with back pain-specific rehabilitation, and depending on the condition of the disc and joints, the Cellgel method is available as a treatment method.

By repairing and regenerating the deformed intervertebral discs, it can prevent the progression of spinal distortion and misalignment that causes pain and numbness. At our clinic, we believe that the root cause of lumbar degenerative scoliosis is the degeneration of the intervertebral discs, so curing the distortion of the bones itself does not solve the root cause. It is important to prevent further deterioration by solving the root cause with the Cellgel method.

Written by Naoki Yoshida, Adminstrative Director