Hi Steve,
Mr. Copes has a web-site at http://www.scoliosis.com/ where the system is
explained. However, I should point out to you that mr. Copes and his
methods are not completely without controverse.
This is not to say that bracing for scoliosis treatment would not be open
for improvement. As you are undoubdedly aware common bracing essentially
comes down to enclosing a person’s body in a rigid shell (e.g. Boston,
Charleston). In engineering terms these braces are ‘displacement driven’.
One of the disadvantages is that if the person assumes another body
position, the forces decrease or diminish. In many cases substantial
correction can only be achieved by regular adjustment of the brace. It
seems that better correction can be obtained if a force-driven orthosis is
applied. That is, the orthosis should be flexible, able to follow body
movements and posture changes, while maintaining the correction forces.
One such system is being developed at (or in cooperation with) the
University of Montreal. There is a working product, marketed by a company
called Biorthex. You can find information at http://www.biorthex.com/ The
system has been tested by a number of scoliotic persons (in the light of
the previous discussion, can I call them ‘patients’ ;-)?).
Another force-driven system is being developed at our university in
cooperation with the university of Groningen by Gert Nijenbanning.
Essentials are high comfort for the wearer due to flexibility and open
structure of the orthosis, and placement of only a few but essential
corrective forces. The orthosis is not yet commercially available; this is
not a marketing speech but it gives an impression of our research. We have
only preliminary results of 6 treatments with the brace, but a larger group
of youngsters will be fitted with it this year. Publications are :
G. Nijenbanning (1998): “Can A dynamic orthosis change neuromuscular
development in idiopathic scoliosis?” Proc. 10th Philip Zorab symposium,
Oxford , pp. 28
G. Nijenbanning (1998): “A new orthosis for scoliosis correction”, Proc. of
the 9th world congress of the ISPO, pp. 439-441
G. Nijenbanning (1998) : “Scoliosis redress”, PhD-thesis, Twente University.
Regards,
Edsko Hekman
…………………………………………………..
.Edsko Hekman .
.Laboratory of Biomechanical Engineering .
.Twente University .
.PO box 217 tel. 31-53-4893173 .
.7500AE Enschede fax. 31-53-4893471 .
.e-mail [email protected] .
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