When alternative scoliosis treatments such as bracing and physical therapy have not produced desired results your doctor might suggest surgery such as spine fusion. This is a very major surgery and depending on age such as in growing children the spine will stop to grow which will limit height. Also with spine fusion the part of the spine were it was fused will be restricted in movement and some loss of motion will be hindered. For example if lumbar is fused touching toes will be limited and constrained. Keep in mind recovery from such surgery is very long, sometimes recovery will take 6 months to a year.
Alternative Scoliosis Surgery
For my son fusion was suggested but after getting home and doing my research I found that there is another new method (new in medical field is 10 years so not that new) that is way better. The method is called ASC short for Anterior Scoliosis Correction. It is a similar to VBT short for Vertebral Body Tethering but ASC seems to be superior to VBT. ASC is a minimally invasive surgery with a fast post-operative recovery and an early hospital discharge that usually takes place only 4 days after surgery. ASC uses cord tethering to straighten and correct the spine. As mention earlier the cons of spine fusion with ASC child will continue to grow and spine movement will not be as severe. In simple terms ASC is like teeth braces but for your back.
Now you must be wondering great where do I sign up but the bad thing about ASC is not very many doctors perform this type of surgery. Only a handful of specialist doctors do this surgery around the world. And also the COST is going to be big as most insurances do not cover this type of procedure because of how new ASC is (again 10 years is new in the medical field).