ABSTRACT
The usual symptoms of back disorders are pain, stiffness and deformity in the back, and pain, paraesthesia or weakness in the lower limbs. 'Spinal deformity' refers to the loss of normal alignment of a straight spine in the coronal plane or the cervical lordosis, thoracic kyphosis and lumbar lordosis in the sagittal plane. It may be due to a congenital or developmental malformation. Scoliosis is a complex rotational deformity which may manifest with a thoracic or lumbar prominence, shoulder imbalance, coronal shift and infrequently pain. Two broad types of deformity are defined: postural scoliosis and structural scoliosis. Prognosis is the key to treatment: the aim is to prevent severe deformity. In patients with minimal deformity and normal or mild neurological impairment, medical therapy is adequate. With progressive neurological deficit or marked kyphosis, surgical debridement and corrective instrumented fusion is considered.
