The History of Side Bending as a Scoliosis Treatment

Non-operative treatment of scoliosis has a long and diverse history. The method of side bending as an orthotic treatment, while having such a lengthy past, has been a durable technique that remains in use today.

The Kalibis splint, also called the “spiral bandage”, was one of the earliest reported orthosis for scoliosis treatment found in the medical literature. Several braces designed in the nineteenth century by German orthotists Heine, Hessing, and Hoffa bear remarkable similarities to later designs by Barr-Buschenfeldt. Probably the most successful and widely accepted side bending device was the Risser turnbuckle cast, reported in the United States in 1931 by Hibbs, Risser and Ferguson. During the 1970s Lawrence Brown, M.D., of Greenville, South Carolina, utilized a bending brace in a full-time wear program. (Fig. 1)

Figure 1

Side bending orthosis are found throughout historical medical literature; bearing out the fact that, while subject to hardware development, the method of side bending is an effective technique for scoliosis treatment…a technique with a past, as well as a future.

Early Development of the Charleston Bending Brace

C. Ralph Hooper Jr., C.P.O. and Frederick E. Reed, M.D. of Charleston, South Carolina, collaborated on the early development of a new side bending orthosis for nocturnal wear. This new brace was first fabricated in 1978 in Charleston for treatment of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. Originally the new orthosis was used to treat patients in which other types of orthotic management had failed; patients who continued to show progressive curvatures, but whose skeletal maturity obviated full-time brace wear, and patients who had refused other treatment options. In these cases, time-modified brace wear seemed preferable to complete non-compliance, for obvious reasons.

In 1984 an investigational team was formed to study lateral bending time-modified brace wear. Team members included: Frederick Reed, M.D. of Charleston, South Carolina; Ralph Hooper, Jr. of Winter Park, Florida; Max F. Riddick, M.D. of Winter Park, Florida; and Charles T. Price, M.D. of Orlando, Florida.

Since 1984, there have been over 15 research articles published regarding the results of patients using the Charleston Bending Brace for the treatment of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. Dr. Charles T. Price continues to be the lead investigator and research physician for scientific studies related to the Charleston Bending Brace.