Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis – Board-Style Questions

What this deck covers

adolescent idiopathic scoliosis in 18 board-style clinical cases with worked explanations. Each case gives you a clinical vignette, four options, the correct answer, and an explanation of why each of the other three is wrong, with the guideline or textbook it follows named on the answer.

Board-style teaching questions for paediatricians and trainees preparing for paediatric board, MRCPCH and licensing examinations. Written from published guidelines and standard paediatric textbooks, with the source named on every answer.

The 18 cases, in order

1. A hump when she stoops
2. Lines on the film
3. What the crest shows
4. Nothing yet
5. What a brace can do
6. Wearing it
7. When to operate
8. Convex to the left
9. Stroking the tummy
10. Does it hurt
11. Will it affect his chest
12. Boy and girl
13. Is it worth paying for
14. Changing for the pool
15. After she stops growing
16. The younger two
17. Back to netball
18. The nurse’s gauge

Diagnoses and management options tested

Across the 18 cases you are asked to choose between options such as: A muscle spasm on one side, which relaxes as soon as she bends forward, The Cobb angle, the standard measure of how large a curve is, The bone age of the hand and wrist, which shows how tall she will become, Curves of this size are treated with daily physiotherapy until growth has ended, To stop the curve growing, rather than to straighten what is already there, Braces have no effect at all on curves of this size, whatever the wear, Surgery is offered for any curve that has been braced, A short lumbar curve, which almost never needs any treatment at all, Absent abdominal reflexes, which point to a problem inside the spinal canal, Any back pain at all means the curve must be braced without delay, Lung function is unaffected however large a thoracic curve becomes, Boys reach skeletal maturity much earlier than girls of the same age, Posture exercises and swimming will not alter the size of the curve, Severe back pain that stops the child taking part in any sport.

Clinical pearls from this deck

• The rib hump is rotation you can see.
• The Cobb angle drives every scoliosis decision.
• Risser grade measures the growth still to come.
• Under twenty-five degrees a curve is watched.
• A brace holds the curve; it does not correct it.
• Hours in the brace decide whether it works.

Work through the deck once for recognition, then again a week later to test yourself — each question gives the answer and explains why every other option fails.

More from this system: all MSK and orthopaedics case decks · pediatric reference values.