From Hippocrates to Harrington: The Evolution of Scoliosis Treatment Through the Ages

By Amelia G. Wang and Zoe Parrott

Scoliosis was and still is a disease of the spine, but how did it come to be called “scoliosis”, or how did scientists-or merely people like us? Let’s take scoliosis back a few steps. The first record of scoliosis was in 400 B.C., by the famous Greek physician and philosopher Hippocrates, who created the term scoliosis and recommended diet and extension for treatment. The word scoliosis comes from the Latin root skolios meaning “bent”. He also composed the Hippocratic Ladder, which was to reduce spinal curvatures. It was made up of a ladder and string and was supposed to “straighten” the patient's spine. He also created the Hippocratic Scamnum and the Hippocratic Board, which were both also used for treatment with scoliosis. However, most of these early treatments such as these were painful. The first time the treatment of braces were brought up was in the 1500s, by Ambrose Paré.

Ambrose Paré was a French barber surgeon, who was born in 1509, and is also known as a “father” of current surgery. He began using corsets as treatment for scoliosis. The corsets were usually metal and had holes or cut-in designs to lighten it. This was the first record of a kind of “brace”, and would continue for another two centuries.

In the 1800s, an American surgeon named Lewis Albert Sayre, also known as one of the “fathers”of orthopedic surgery, believed that corsets actually hindered the treatment of patients of idiopathic scoliosis. He wrote many pieces detailing his theories regarding the effectiveness of “gymnastic exercises” to correct what he viewed as a musculoskeletal imbalance. His studies later resulted in the development of a plaster jacket used to support the patient’s spine, and treatment included wearing it all day except for during sleeping and exercising times. The discovery and later use of x-rays shortly after Dr. Sayre’s ruminations would only benefit future physicians and scientists’ efforts to treat scoliosis. 

In the early 1920’s, Katharina Schroth, a scoliosis patient herself, decided to create an exercise regimen designed to help treat her condition. In the 1950’s and beyond, more invasive surgical techniques were introduced and refined, with the most influential being Paul Harrington’s use of a single metal rod attached from top to bottom of the spine. While this did not reverse the effects of scoliosis, it significantly slowed the progression of the curvature. Many modern day surgical treatments are very much reflected in this use of metal rods to correct scoliosis. 

Works Cited

https://www.hudsonvalleyscoliosis.com/what-is-scoliosis/history/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10404583/

https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en/

https://heyclinic.com/the-history-of-scoliosis-and-todays-advances/

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2816759/

https://treatingscoliosis.com/blog/scoliosis-treatment-history/