Causes of Non Idiopathic Structural Scoliosis

Most common type of scoliosis is idiopathic, a term used in medical literature when no cause is known.  Non idiopathic structural scoliosis forms a small percentage of structural scoliosis.

Most common causes in this group are  neuromuscular diseases such as cerebral palsy, poliomyelitis or muscular dystrophy or  birth defects such as hemivertebra. Injury may be another cause. Infections or tumors also might give rise to curvature of the spine.

Here is the list of causes of non idiopathic structural scoliosis

• Cerebral palsy
• Spinocerebellar degeneration
• Friedreich’s ataxia
• Hereditary Motor and Sensory Neuropathies
• Trauma
• Spinal tumor
• Syringomyelia
• Poliomyelitis
• Spinal muscular atrophy I-IV (usually right sided curve)
• Dysautonomia
• Arthrogryposis
• Muscular dystrophies

• Duchenne and Becker’s
• Limb girdle
• Facio-scapulo-humeral

• Fibre type disproportion
• Congenital hypotonia
• Myotonia dystrophica
• Achondroplasia and hypochondroplasia – mainly lordosis or thoracolumbar kyphosis.
• Spondylolisthesis
• Mesenchymal disorders like  Marfan’s syndrome or  Ehler’s-Danlos syndrome
• Spina bifida especially thoracic type
• Neurofibromatosis
• Rheumatoid disease
• Tumors
  • Osteoid osteoma
  • Osteoblastoma
  • Eosinophilic granuloma
  • Intraspinal tumours like  ependymoma, astrocytoma, epidermoid cyst