The Providence and Charleston orthoses are two commonly used nighttime bending braces for moderate idiopathic scoliosis. This study aims to investigate whether the Providence style orthosis provides superior in-brace correction compared to the Charleston orthosis. A retrospective chart review was conducted examining patients treated with a Charleston or Providence brace. All included patients met the Scoliosis Research Society’s bracing criteria, were diagnosed with juvenile or adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, and were age 10 or older when bracing was initiated. Additional exclusion criteria included females who were greater than one-year postmenarcheal at time of bracing, had missing radiographs or a gap of greater than three months of time between their respective prebracing and first in-brace radiographs. In-brace spinal coronal curvatures were compared using linear mixed-effects models adjusting for prebrace curvature. Statistical significance was defined as P < 0.05. Fifty-five patients met the study inclusion criteria (27 for Charleston and 28 for Providence). The cohorts did not significantly differ clinically or demographically. No significant difference in the average prebrace coronal curve magnitude was observed between the two groups, with average measurements of 31° for both the Charleston and Providence braces, respectively ( P = 0.94). Our study found no differences in the in-brace correction of coronal curve magnitude between the two braces, with both braces reducing the in-brace coronal curve magnitude to an average of 6° ( P = 0.98), reflecting 81% average reduction of coronal curve magnitude by each brace. Our findings demonstrate very similar in-brace scoliosis correction when using either the Providence or Charleston orthosis. Level of Evidence III – retrospective comparative study.
Nyborg et al. (Mon,) studied this question.