Abstract:
Scoliosis is a tri-planar condition of the spine that often requires multidisciplinary conservative outpatient treatment. The medical and allied health clinicians involved have their own workflows, schedules, concerns, and logistics with the patients and their families greatly benefiting from coordination of care. The fit of a scoliosis orthosis is considered successful for full-time wearers when 50% of the Cobb angle is reduced by the orthosis (Lusardi and Nielsen, 2000), requiring the wearers to undergo radiological evaluation after the orthotic fitting takes place. When the desired in-brace correction is not achieved, the patients face additional follow-ups with the treating orthotist, additional radiology with corresponding radiological exposure, costs, and stressors. The increased need for follow up may strain the therapeutic alliance between the orthotist and the patient and/or between the orthotist and the remainder of the treatment team. A promising strategy to best determine the effectiveness of orthotic fit prior to advancing the patient to radiology was proposed by Courney et al., 2022. Our investigation aimed at replicating the results reported with additional control of variables based on the knowledge gained from the 2022 findings.
