Summary: Active Correction by Side Shift

Summary: Active Correction by Side Shift - M H Mehta

In 1985, Dr. Min Mehta first published a report on using side-shift exercises in her practice. The study follows 35 of her patients who either used side-shift exclusively for at least a year or, in some cases, side-shift plus night bracing.

Looking at the whole group, the average increase was  l° in Cobb angle, 0.6° in apical vertebral rotation, and 0.4° in lower vertebral tilt. Looking at the individual Cobb angles, nine curves (21.4%) had improved (range -5 to -23°), 21 (50%) were unchanged (range -2 to +4°), and 12 (28.57%) were worsened (range +5 to +11°). 

Because there was no control group, and, therefore, no way of knowing how the curves would have progressed after a year without treatment, Dr. Mehta looked more closely at just those children deemed most likely to progress (younger patients with a low Risser). 

Within the high risk group of 10 children, the average increase in Cobb angle per year was  l° (Note that four of these patients also wore a night-time brace.) According to Dr. Mehta "Changes of this order, particularly in children in the high-risk group, may reasonably be regarded as insignificant. They indicate that the treatment does influence the natural history of the early curves by slowing down their rate of progression during a time of rapid growth."