Milwaukee brace today.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the efficacy of the Milwaukee brace and its psychological impact and to define whether its use is still acceptable today by a review of literature.


METHODS
A bibliographic search on PubMed and Medline database using keywords, 'scoliosis and brace' was performed.


RESULTS
Milwaukee brace 23-hours wearing protocol was most effective for the treatment of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. However, 23-hours wearing protocol has some drawbacks, and even the patients using thoraco-lumbo-sacral orthosis wore their brace only for around 60% of the time prescribed as their wearing protocol. Our Milwaukee brace part-time wearing treatment was effective, and by its use combined with physical therapy, better results than the natural history were obtained.


CONCLUSIONS
With part-time wearing protocol, the Milwaukee brace can survive today as a treatment option for idiopathic scoliosis with thoracic curve or double curve.
Maruyama
Toru
T
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Saitama Medical Center, Saitama Medical University. tmaruyama17@yahoo.co.jp
Takeshita
Katsushi
K
Kitagawa
Tomoaki
T
D000293:Adolescent; D001915:Braces; D006801:Humans; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D010349:Patient Compliance; D012600:Scoliosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation / Q000628:therapy*; D013904:Thoracic Vertebrae / Q000002:abnormalities* / Q000473:pathology; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome