A program of physical rehabilitation can improve lung function in adolescents with scoliosis, researchers in Brazil report.

Scoliosis is an abnormal sideways curvature of the spine. In severe cases, the ribcage can be distorted enough to cause breathing problems.

Muscle weakness contributes to the lack of conditioning in adolescents with scoliosis, the authors explain, but few reports have assessed the impact of physical rehabilitation on respiratory function in these patients.

Vera Lucia dos Santos Alves, from Santa Isabel Hospital, Sao Paolo, and colleagues tested the pulmonary function of 34 young people with scoliosis before and after a 4-month program of physical rehabilitation. All of the patients, who ranged in age from 10 to 18 years old, had abnormalities severe enough to make them candidates for corrective surgery.

The rehab program consisted of 1-hour sessions, three times a week, concentrating on aerobic exercises. “All of the patients complied with the rehabilitation program, missing on average 1.6 sessions during the entire period of the program (total of 50 sessions),” the team reports in the medical journal Chest.

After rehabilitation, the patients showed significant improvements in the strength and capacity of their breathing, the researchers found.

Breathing rate and heart rate decreased significantly after the training program, the results indicate, and there were significant improvements in the distance walked in 6 minutes - a standard test of fitness.

“The physical activity proposed by the rehabilitation protocol was beneficial to patients,” dos Santos Alves and colleagues conclude, “suggesting that patients with ... scoliosis who are surgical candidates may benefit from preoperative physical rehabilitation.”

SOURCE: Chest, August 2006.