Can juvenile scoliosis be corrected by circumscribed radium-irradiation of the spine?
In 1936 scoliosis was produced in growing animals by exposing one side of one or more vertebrae to radium action. The purpose of this treatment was to recurve existing curvatures of the spine on the same principle. No attempt has been made so far to correct congenital scoliosis of infants by this method. Hundreds of infants treated by X-ray for Wilms’ tumor developed incidental spinal curvatures. In none of these cases was there any recorded mention of damage to the spinal cord or any other organ. Since the epiphyseal plate is much more sensitive to radiation than is the Wilms’ tumor and radium radiation can be more easily controlled than X-radiation, it is suggested that scoliosis of genetic or other etiology might be successfully treated by radium or possibly other gamma rays. The choice of the rays and the dosage must be left to the experts.
