Part-time bracing of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.

Forty-four patients with fifty-five scoliotic curves were studied to determine the efficacy of part-time bracing. All patients were skeletally immature at the initiation of treatment with the brace. All but one of the patients had a curve of at least 25 degrees that had shown 5 degrees of documented progression. Each patient wore the brace for sixteen hours a day, most patients preferring not to wear it during school hours. The patients all completed the course of treatment. Because of the margin of error in radiographic measurements, a change in the magnitude of the curve of 5 degrees or more was considered significant. Twenty-five patients, with twenty-seven curves, showed a change of less than 5 degrees from the initiation of brace treatment to final follow-up. The other nineteen patients (twenty-eight curves) showed a change of more than 5 degrees in at least one of the curves, with four of them showing worsening and the other fifteen showing improvement.