Scheuermann's disease: A Congenital Disorder

Abstract

Scheuermann's kyphosis is a idiopathic condition also known as Scheuermann's disease and juvenile discogenic disease. This disease is characterized by hyperkyphosis with anterior wedging more than 5 degrees in 3 or more vertebral bodies. This diseases affected individuals within age group 12 -17 male are twice more affected than females. The prevalence of Scheuermann's Diseases is 1% to 8%. Here we present a 20 year old male came to orthopedic outpatient department with chief complaints of pain in the lower back region. On evaluation the patient presented with a hump in the lumbar region (Figure 1A) and scoliosis in the thoracic region with convexity on the right side (Figure 1B). The clinical findings were then confirmed on the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (T2W). The radiograph of the cervical region showed loss of lordosis with osteophytic disc complexes seen at C3-C6 levels (figure 2A). The dorsal radiograph shows degenerative changes in the form of hypointensity at T2 level and schmorl’s nodes at multiple at rostral and caudal endplates (Figure 2B), presence of marginal osteophytes at D3-D6 level (Figure 2C). The patient is currently undergoing conservative treatment consisting of medical therapy for pain reduction, and physical therapy interventions such as Transcutenous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) over lower back, core strengthening, and corrections of the scoliosis by stretching the muscles on the concave side of the curve.