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Lordosis

What is lordosis?

Lordosis is the normal shape of your spine in the lower back and neck. In these two areas, a normal spine has a mild backward curve.

Doctors use the term hyper-lordosis to refer to curves that are greater than the usual range. You may also hear doctors call this simply “lordosis.” In children as well as adults, hyper-lordosis can give people a swayback look and make their bottoms stand out.

Most children with hyper-lordosis do not require surgery.

How do you evaluate hyper-lordosis?

Patterns of sagittal deformity.
Patterns of sagittal deformity.

When your child comes to our clinic, we will take an X-ray of her spine to see how much it curves. We will look for any problems with her nervous system or her muscles that might be related to hyper-lordosis.

We also will check her hips since increased lordosis sometimes is a sign of hip dislocation.

Who gets hyper-lordosis?

Hyper-lordosis is rare in children. We usually see it only in those who have nervous system and muscle problems (neuromuscular conditions).

These conditions include cerebral palsy, myelomeningocele, muscular dystrophy, spinal muscular atrophy and arthrogryposis.

This problem often happens because muscles near the hips are weak or tightened up, causing the child’s pelvis to tilt forward and lordosis in the lower part of the spine to increase.

What’s your experience with hyper-lordosis?

Our Spine Clinic treats hundreds of children with neuromuscular spine problems such as lordosis. Our team of doctors includes specialists in orthopedic surgery, developmental pediatrics, rehabilitation therapy and physical therapy.

How do you treat hyper-lordosis?

We use both non-surgical treatments and surgery to treat hyper-lordosis.

Non-surgical treatments

Children who have hyper-lordosis may need help to get around. When fitted properly, walkers or crutches can help children with disabilities stand more upright. Physical therapy programs also can often help children with hyper-lordosis.

Surgery for hyper-lordosis

If your child needs surgery to correct the curve and stabilize the spine, doctors usually operate on both the front and the back of the spine. This helps them better correct the deformity.

In this operation, the doctor puts hooks or screws in the vertebrae, removes the joints between the bones and attaches a metal rod to the hooks or screws. He repositions your child’s spine to be straighter, then tightens the screws or hooks to make sure they are firmly attached to the rod.

Next, he places a bone graft along the spine to help the vertebrae grow together.

These operations are often complex, so most of our patients stay in our Pediatric Intensive Care Unit after surgery.