Infantile and Juvenile Scoliosis: The Crooked Path to Diagnosis and Treatment

Most cases of scoliosis are diagnosed and treated during adolescence; many are detected in school screening programs. For a small percentage of children, however, the onset of scoliosis occurs much earlier than adolescence.Infantile scoliosis (ie, onset from birth to two years of age) and juvenile scoliosis (ie, onset from three to nine years of age) involve very different diagnoses and treatment regimens than adolescent scoliosis. Early onset scoliosis may resolve with growth or may require nonsurgical treatment (eg, orthosis, body cast); surgical intervention (eg, halo traction, growing rods, vertical expandable prosthetic titanium rib); or a combination of both.