Bialek, M

Kotwicki, T

Scoliosis

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M Bialek

T Kotwicki

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BioMed Central
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Scoliosis
Open AccessOral presentation
Lower limb muscle shortening in structural versus non-structural 
spinal deformity
M Bialek* and T Kotwicki
Address: Fits Center Jawor, Poland ul. Metalowców 35 Jawor, 53 602, Poland
Email: M Bialek* - mbialek@fits.pl
* Corresponding author    
Background
Muscle shortening within the lower limbs can be observed
in adolescents with either structural or non-structural spi-
nal deformities. Whether or not it is related to the spinal
deformity remains unclear. The aim of the study was to
evaluate the lower limb muscle shortening in a group of
adolescents with structural spinal deformity (idiopathic
scoliosis, Scheuermann's juvenile kyphosis) compared to
adolescents with non-structural postural trunk asymme-
try. The hypothesis was that structural spinal deformities
are related to a specific pattern of muscle shortening.
Materials and methods
Sixty-one adolescents, ages 10 to 17 years, were divided
into four groups according to their diagnosis. Nineteen
had idiopathic scoliosis with Cobb angles from 25° to
60°, seventeen had idiopathic scoliosis with Cobb angles
from 10° to 25°, eight had Scheuermann's juvenile
kyphosis, and seventeen had non-structural postural
trunk asymmetries having the Bunnell angle of trunk rota-
tion of 3° or less (therefore, neither scoliotic nor kyphotic
structural deformity was present in the last group).
All children were examined by the same observer (first
author), using clinical tests to detect muscle shortening
within the lower limbs and additionally within the pecto-
ralis major, latissimus dorsi and quadratus lumborum
muscles.
Results
The results were recorded as 0 (no shortening) or 1 (pres-
ence of muscle shortening).
The results showed a broad spectrum of muscle shorten-
ing in each of the four groups. The muscles which were
most often shortened comprised: hamstrings, gastrocne-
mius, soleus, rectus femoris, and hip adductors. The non-
shortened groups comprised: pectoralis major, latissimus
dorsi, piriformis and quadratus lumborum. No relation-
ship was found between the etiology and the shortening
of any examined muscle, however, the limited number of
patients prevented the observed tendency to reach statisti-
cal significance.
Conclusion
Lower limb muscle shortening seems to be very common
both in structural spinal deformities and in non-structural
trunk asymmetries ("poor posture"). The initial hypothe-
sis could not be confirmed; no relationship between spi-
nal and limb pathology could be put into evidence. Larger
study groups are needed to explore the question why
some lower limb muscles undergo shortening in patients
with structural spinal deformities and whether this short-
ening presents a separate therapeutic problem.
from 6th International Conference on Conservative Management of Spinal Deformities
Lyon, France. 21-23 May 2009
Published: 14 December 2009
Scoliosis 2009, 4(Suppl 2):O26 doi:10.1186/1748-7161-4-S2-O26
<supplement> <title> <p>6th International Conference on Conservative Management of Spinal Deformities</p> </title> <editor>Jean Claude de Mauroy, Theodoros Grivas, Patrick Knott and David Tager</editor> <note>A single PDF containing all abstracts in this Supplement is available <a href="http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/files/pdf/1748-7161-4-S2-full.pdf">here</a>.</note> </supplement>
This abstract is available from: http://www.scoliosisjournal.com/content/4/S2/O26
© 2009 Bialek and Kotwicki; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 


Lower limb muscle shortening in structural versus non-structural spinal deformity

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Lower limb muscle shortening in structural versus non-structural spinal deformity

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