title: A comparison of the clinical effectiveness of spinal orthoses manufactured using the conventional manual method and CAD/CAM method in the management of AIS.
abstract: Spinal orthoses are commonly prescribed to patients with moderate AIS for prevention of further deterioration. In a conventional manufacturing method, plaster bandages are used to get patient's body contour and plaster cast is rectified manually. With the introduction of CAD/CAM system, a series of automated processes from body scanning to digital rectification and milling of positive model can be performed in a fast and accurate fashion. This project is to study the impact of CAD/CAM method as compared with the conventional method. In assessing the 147 recruited subjects fitted with spinal orthoses (43 subjects using conventional method and 104 subjects using CAD/CAM method), significant decreases (p<0.05) were found in the Cobb angles when comparing the pre-intervention data with that of the first year of intervention. Regarding the learning curve, Orthotists are getting more competent with the CAD/CAM technique in four years time. The mean productivity of the CAD/CAM method is 2.75 times higher than that of the conventional method. The CAD/CAM method could achieve similar clinical outcomes and with its high efficiency, could be considered as substitute for conventional methods in fabricating spinal orthoses for patients with AIS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Technology and Informatics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Republic of China.
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: C Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: B K W
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Ng
authors.forename: T P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Lam
authors.forename: S W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Chiu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009989:Orthotic Devices; D012600:Scoliosis / Q000628:therapy*; D016896:Treatment Outcome