ABSTRACT
Ankylosing spondylitis is a chronic inflammatory disease leading to increasing stiffness and kyphotic deformity of the spine. Conservative treatment, especially intensive physiotherapy, is necessary to keep patients mobile and to prevent deformity as long as possible. Despite these efforts, in many patients ankylosis progresses from the lumbar and thoracic spine to the cervical spine. These patients end up in a fixed kyphosis of the thoracolumbar spine without the possibility to compensate in the cervical region.
