The Postural Control Indexes during Unipodal Support in Patients with Idiopathic Scoliosis

Abstract

Proper posture provides the best balance and body stability at minimal muscular effort. It is constantly controlled by the central nervous system, which integrates the stimuli from the proprioceptors (deep feeling sensors), vision receptors, and balance receptors through the subcortical structures. The main purpose of the study was to describe single stance stability and its correlation with the degree of scoliosis and trunk rotation among patients suffering from idiopathic scoliosis and in the control group without scoliosis. The study included 80 patients (69 girls and 11 boys) and 40 healthy children without scoliosis (21 girls and 19 boys). The Cobb angle technique was used to determine the magnitude of the deformity. All subjects were divided into three subgroups according to Bogdanov’s classification. Single stance stability with eyes open and eyes closed was assessed with an electronic postural station—Delos Postural Proprioceptive System (DPPS). In case of multiple group comparisons for variables with normal distribution ANOVA with Scheffe, post hoc test was used or Kruskal-Wallis test was used as the nonparametric equivalent. The relationship between the two continuous variables was investigated using either Pearson product-moment correlation or Spearman’s rank correlation. In all these calculations, the statistical significance level was set to p<0.05. The single stance test showed a significant difference between the stability index with eyes open and stability index with eyes closed in study and control groups. The character of these alterations is influenced by the degree of trunk rotation. The degree of scoliosis according to Bogdanov classification does not determine the decrease in stability indexes. In summary, significantly lower values of the stability index during one-leg standing with eyes closed indicated balance impairment, which is mainly connected with inadequate functioning of the proprioceptive system.