Scoliosis overview with Dr. Steven Hwang

Dr. Steven Hwang:

Hi, my name's Steven Hwang. I'm one of the spine surgeons here at Shriners in Philadelphia. We treat primarily scoliosis in children here. And so scoliosis is essentially a three-dimensional rotation of the spine. And so we often see with a curvature in children, may notice some shoulder symmetry or sometimes a rib prominence in the back. Sometimes their waist may be to the side a little bit. You yourself, or your children may have noticed screening in schools or by the pediatricians. Often they have children lean forward and look at their backs to look for any of these asymmetries to help identify those children who have scoliosis. And so a lot of those children come to us here and we help manage them in different ways.

There's a lot of different options to help treat these children. I think you've heard from some of the children today. Some involve traction and surgeries or different kinds of bracing methods. And we do treat kind of the gamut of options here at Shriners in Philadelphia. And so thank you very much for helping us treat these children and help these other children. We do really appreciate all the help we have and the resources, and it helps us help others as well.