The History of Scoliosis

Greek physician of the classical period who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine, Hippocrates (460–377BC), was the first to describe abnormal spinal curvature in the Western medical literature; he coined the term ‘scoliosis’ (skolios is Greek for ‘bent’) and thought the condition was due to poor posture.

Various treatments were introduced to reduce spinal curvatures, such as the Hippocratic Ladder where the patient underwent “succussion” or shaking while being tied on a ladder and the Hippocratic Board where manual pressure was applied to the patient’s hump while traction was simultaneous applied.

Early thoughts about scoliosis viewed it as a deformity that needed to be fixed and bracing was one of the first person-centric attempts to straighten a crooked scoliotic spine.

Bracing History

Scoliosis braces have evolved hugely since the first bracing attempts in 650 A.D. when patients were tied to wooden sticks!

The next step in history was the design of an actual back brace. The first-known scoliosis brace was metal and was created in France in 1575, it must have been very heavy and cumbersome.

Between 1950 and 2000, a variety of braces were designed and developed, the most commonly known are the Milwaukee, the Boston brace and the Cheneau brace, which was developed in the 1970s and considered the first asymmetric brace to support correction of scoliosis in all planes.

This lead to the Gensingen brace, which was designed with optimum correction and correction in mind and is the brace we use here at Braced for Scoliosis.

The Gensingen brace actively reduces back curvature by off-loading the vertebrae three dimensionally to change their shape and alignment. This will reduce the Cobb angle or stop progression of the curves whilst growth completes.