An 11 year old boy visits the office complaining of low back pain. He reports with his mother that he fell off of the playground equipment at school during recess. He says he is having pain in the upper lumbar region. During the examination, it was also noticed that the child had a significant scoliosis that was no longer present with forward bending (or Adam’s test).
Adam’s test is useful in differentiating between a structural scoliosis and a functional scoliosis. A structural scoliosis is limited in progress expectations and treatment goals are more geared towards preventing the condition from worsening. Functional scoliosis develops with bad postures or poor mechanics with repetitive motions and it responds well to treatment, education, home stretching and exercise plans.
This particular patient reported playing video games and demonstrated poor posture maintained while playing for long periods of time.
A treatment plan was derived and the patient responded quickly. Home exercises and an awareness of appropriate posture also helped resolve to functional scoliosis that had developed.
However, most remarkably, the patient’s mother reported in passing that the patient had stopped wetting the bed since his first treatment.
Pinched nerves sometimes cause pain, but they can also interfere with the body’s ability to communicate proper function and control. Misaligned spinal segments can pinch nerves, which in this case, interfered with nerves controlling bladder function at night. Chiropractic adjustment was able to relieve spinal joint back pain, correct posture and helped the patient’s nerves to better function.