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Rib Cage Misalignment??

My 25 year old son went to a chiropractor a few months back.  He has right sided thoracic scoliosis which forms an S with a lumbar curve and spina bifida occulta.  He was having some back pain so he went for a free consultation.  He brought a previous xray and the dr. took an xray while he was there to compare to.  The dr. felt there was no change in the curvature and that he could help loosen things up.  My son only went for three visits because the adjustments were too painful.  The adjustments were pretty rough.  ( I was there during the first one.  One of the adjustments was to have him lay on his stomach and the doctor moved his legs from side to side.  Another adjustments involved him having to stand up and the doctor did something to the thoracic area which caused a lot of pain.)  Since his last visit, he has been having shortness of breath, and a bloating feeling right under the bottom of his left rib cage area.  He especially feels this after eating.  He also has a more back pain when walking, or standing, and he has to sit after a short period of time.  Is it possible that the adjustments actually misaligned him?  He feels that his left ribcage is actually sticking out more now?  He has been to a pulmonary doctor since and they ordered an MRI and found a thoracic syrinx from T3 to T10.  His pulmonary doctor referred him to an ortho doctor who was really useless.  The ortho doctor is wanting him to go to a neuro doctor.  In the mean time he is suffering and not sure why since symtoms started after his adjustments.  The xray taken at the ortho office shows how twisted he appears, but the doctor didn't really take the time to go over all the xrays to compare. I'm going to post this in the spine and syrinx section also.  Thank you for any input.
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Avatar universal
Hi Adam,  

When we went to the scoliosis ortho speciaist we had brought my son's xray from 2010 when he first was diagnosed with scoliosis and his curve was at 20 degrees thoracic and 30 degrees lumbar.  When we went to the chiropractor in Nov we brought that xray so he would have something to compair to.  He took an xray prior to manipulation and said there really wasn't that much of a difference and the curve had not changed.  It wasn't a true spinal xray though, but a chest xray that he made the comparison with. We had that xray to bring to the ortho doctor last week and he measured the So the xray taken by the Chiropractor was the end of November.  The ortho took an xray when my son was there last week and he called us today with the measurements of the xray and the curve is now at 50 degrees.  Also his recent MRI that was taken a few weeks ago shows that he has a syrinx from T3 to T10. We now have an appointment with a neurosurgeon.  There was a 13 degree change over the last few months.  When we go to the neuro we will also be bringing the xray of his chest that was taken in December when he went to ER with his symptoms.

I am finding that it is really risky for patients with scoliosis to get manual adjustments without having an MRI, because there could be an undetected syrinx in the spinal cord.  Until we go to the neuro, we will not know if the syrinx was possibly something that was already there and aggrevated by the adjustment, or they can also be caused by trauma to the spine. His thoracic adjustment was very, very painful, so I don't know.   I'm glad we have the xray prior to the adjustment, and one shortly after, and one that the ortho just took.

I have found out through lots of recent research that not very many doctors are familiar with syrinx's. The new xray definately shows how misaligned he is  when standing straight..

All we really hope is that the neuro will be able to direct us to a solution to getting him back in alignment so he won't be in so much discomfort.  I have read a little about the Activator and will check with the neuro on that.  

Thank you for your input and suggestion.
Helpful - 0
514494 tn?1376511148
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
It's not unreasonable to suggest that the manipulations your son received exacerbated the already misaligned area. Some adjustments are perfectly safe, but may have contraindications for use... Ultimately, I cannot say for sure since I didn't observe the treatment personally.

I would recommend searching for a more gentle and passive approach to spinal adjusting. Consider one of the Upper Cervical methods (Blair, Palmer Specific, NUCCA, Atlas Orthogonal, Grostic, etc) or an instrument based approach like Activator.
Helpful - 0

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