The acute effects of brace use on lower extremity performance in individuals with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.

Background: Braces have been a popular treatment option for scoliosis among healthcare professionals for many years. However, the effect of braces on scoliosis treatment remains a subject of ongoing debate and research.
Aims: Our study aimed to evaluate the effects of wearing a spinal brace on vertical jump, postural control, reach distance, and fall risk in patients with Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS).
Methods: We included 33 patients with AIS aged between 10 to 18 years old in our cross-sectional study. Patients were randomly subjected to vertical jump test, standing long jump test, timed up and go test, postural control, and forward reach test, while wearing and not wearing the scoliosis brace, respectively.
Results: Our findings revealed that patients wearing scoliosis braces had significantly lower vertical jumps (p = .001), standing long jumps (p < .001), and forward reach distances with their dominant (p = .002) and non-dominant limbs (p = .007) compared to those who did not wear the brace. However, there was no significant difference in postural control and timed up and go test between the two groups (p > .05).
Conclusions: Our study suggests that wearing a scoliosis brace may negatively affect an individual's vertical and standing long jumps, and forward reach distances. However, wearing or not wearing the brace had no significant effect on postural control and timed stand-up test. Long-term follow-up studies are needed to evaluate the overall effectiveness of scoliosis braces in treating AIS.
(© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland.)