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Over 50,000 patients helped since 1921



Don't Let Your Child Undergo Surgery

Schroth Exercises Can Reduce Curves Safely

Spinal fusion surgery to try to straighten a scoliotic spine is almost never necessary. Even if your doctor recommends that, try Schroth exercises first.

  • Correct spinal rotation and increase lung capacity with a rotational breathing technique

  • Help restore normal spinal position with a special breathing technique

  • Improve your posture during routine daily living, not just during therapy

12-year-old girl with Scheuermann's kyphosis (left).

After five weeks of Schroth treatment (right).


The Definitive Handbook
on Schroth Exercises

Written by Christa Lehnert-Schroth, P.T. this book includes:

  • Over 100 scoliosis exercises - with photos

    •
  • Treatments for 3, as well as 4-curve configurations, which the author discovered, and which are actually more common than many doctors realize

    •
  • Exercises for Scheuermann's kyphosis, flatback, hollow-back syndrome (hyperlordosis), lumbar kyphosis, spondylolisthesis, and related pathologies

"I have remained an adherent of Scroth therapy right up to the present day. I haven't been sick in bed for one day in 50 years, and I'm also not under doctor's care or on any drugs. Despite my 88 years and severe scoliosis, I'm still fit."

- Georg S.

Why Avoid Surgery?

Surgery is not a cure, but rather, in the words of Dr. Hans-Rudolf Weiss (grandson of Katharina Schroth), it substitutes one pathology -- a stiff spine -- for another. The unsolved underlying issue, paraspinal muscular imbalances, means that the spine may continue to twist above and below the fusion, causing pain or other problems as the patient ages. If the patient has already had surgery, Schroth therapy can help restore normal posture and reduce pain.

Since spinal fusion is extremely invasive, there is risk of adverse consequences such as pain, infection, broken implants, failed fusion, and necessity of revision surgery. The more surgeries, the higher the probability of complications, including death. See this study:  Mortality and Morbidity in Early-Onset Scoliosis Surgery.



3 Success Stories

1) Schroth Therapy Reduces Curves, Avoids Surgery

In 1991 a clinical study compared patients with Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS) at two clinics: an Irish clinic that does NOT practice the Schroth Method, and Dr. Rigo's Schroth Method clinic in Barcelona.

  • 28% of the patients at the Irish clinic went on to have spinal fusion surgery
  • Only 6% of patients at Dr. Rigo's Schroth Method clinic had to undergo surgery
Source: Rigo M, Reiter Ch, Weiss HR. "Effect of conservative management on the prevalence of surgery in patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis." Pediatric Rehabilitation 2003 Jul-Dec;6(3-4):209-14.


2) Schroth Patients are Less Likely to Suffer Curve Progression

A control group of untreated patients was compared to a similar group that received scoliosis in-patient rehabilitation (SIR) at the Katharina Schroth Klinik. Some of the SIR patients had more severe curvatures. However, the untreated control group's curvature progressed 2 - 3 times more than those treated with SIR according to the Schroth Method.

Source: Weiss HR, Weiss G, Petermann F. "Incidence of curvature progression in idiopathic scoliosis patients treated with scoliosis in-patient rehabilitation (SIR): an age- and sex-matched controlled study." Pediatric Rehabilitation 2003 Jan-Mar;6(1):23-30.


3) Schroth Patients Showed No Curve Progression 3 Years After Treatment

This study begun in 1989 included 181 scoliosis patients with:

  • Average age: 12.7 years
  • Average Cobb angle curvature: 27 degrees
  • Average risser sign: 1.4

After an average follow up of 33 months, there was no progression of curvature

Source: Weiss HR, Lohschmidt K, el-Obeidi N, Verres C. "Preliminary results and worst-case analysis of in patient scoliosis rehabilitation." Pediatric Rehabilitation 1997 Vol. 1(1): 35-40.

Be informed! Read this before agreeing to surgery.

Educate yourself on the exercises that therapists use to treat scoliosis -- and help their patients avoid spinal fusion surgery.

Remember that you, not your doctor, are the ultimate decision maker in your child's treatment!

Three-Dimensional Treatment for Scoliosis

Why Schroth Method?

  • Reduces Pain
  • Stops Curve Progression
  • Increases Lung Capacity

Without the need for surgery.

Try  Schroth Exercises first!

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