Our 13-year old daughter may have a great basketball career ahead of her. She’s already six feet tall and still growing. But the pediatrician noticed some changes in her spine with this last growth spurt. Now she has scoliosis. Does that come from growing too fast?

The normal spine is straight from neck to buttock when viewed from the back (posterior view). Scoliosis is a curvature of the spine. It can be seen on X-ray as an abnormal C-shaped (one curve) or S-shaped curvature (two curves).

The type of scoliosis your daughter has is called adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). This type occurs in children between 10 years and when growth is finally complete.

The term idiopathic means no one knows what causes the condition to occur. A sudden, large growth spurt is one possible cause. This is just a theory and hasn’t been proven yet. There are many children who experience a sudden, large amount of spinal growth without developing scoliosis. This suggests there are other factors besides fast growth.

Sometimes in children who have growth spurts, the front half of the vertebral bone grows faster than the back half. Researchers are studying what may cause this to happen. One theory is that the position of the pelvis and sacrum at the base of the spine is the central key.

We do know that the position and angle of the sacrum has an effect on the sagittal alignment of the spine in normal adolescents and adults. Sagittal refers to a view of the spine from the side rather than from the back. Scientists are studying the relationship of the sacrum to scoliosis when sagittal angles are measured.

A recent study comparing pelvic and sacral angles in normal children and children with scoliosis was reported. They found all children with scoliosis had changes in the sagittal angle of the sacrum compared to children without scoliosis. It didn’t seem to matter at what level the scoliosis occurred in the spine.