Conservative treatment of the scoliotic and kyphotic patient. Brace treatment and other modalities.

Although various forms of nonoperative treatment have been applied to spinal deformities over the centuries, it was the development of the original Milwaukee brace, a cervicothoracic-lumbosacral orthosis (CTLSO), by Blount and Schmidt in the middle 1940s that heralded a new era of nonoperative treatment and that has led to much of the success we enjoy with nonoperative treatment today. Furthermore, as our understanding of the natural history of scoliosis has grown and our recognition of the specific genetic, curvature-related, or neurophysiological factors that predispose patients to curvature progression has improved, so has our ability to successfully treat patients by nonoperative means.