Determination of the influence of the Chêneau brace on quality of life for adolescent with idiopathic scoliosis.

OBJECTIVE The main objective is to determine the influence of treatment by Chêneau brace on the quality of life (QoL) of adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis. MATERIAL AND METHOD We used the QoL scale of Climent et al. "the Quality of Life Profile for Spine Deformities" (QLPSD, in which a higher score means a worse QoL) and visual analogue scales (VAS) for pain and for QoL ranging from 0 to 100mm. The study includes 108 subjects divided in three groups, a control group of 32 patients without brace, a full-time treated group (wearing a Chêneau brace 23/24 hours) of 41 patients, and a part-time treated group (wearing the brace during the night only) of 35 patients. RESULTS The QoL is significantly worse in the full-time treated group than in the group with night treatment and in the group without brace for the psychosocial functioning, the sleep disturbances, the back flexibility (P<0.001), the body image (P<0.01), as well as the overall score (P<0.001). On the other hand, there was no difference for the back pain. Among patients wearing the brace, the girls had an average QLPSD score higher than the boys for the psychosocial functioning, the body image, the overall score (P<0.05) and the back flexibility (P<0.01). Whereas there was no significant difference between the sexes for the sleep disturbances and the back pain. The QoL of patients who wear the brace was significantly correlated with degrees corrected wearing the brace and the patient's satisfaction on his or her health status. However, this correlation was very weak. On the other hand, there was no correlation between the quality of life and the age, the duration of brace treatment or the skeletal maturity (Risser sign). On VAS, the patients without brace have the highest score of QoL, followed the part-time treated patients while the full-time treated patients have the lowest score. CONCLUSION The wearing of the Chêneau brace involves a significant reduction in the QoL whatever instruments of evaluations of QoL, QLPSD or VAS. The QoL of the full-time treated patients was the lowest followed part-time treated patients while the QoL of the patients without brace was the highest. However, the brace does not influence the back pain in idiopathic scoliosis at teenage.