Background: Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is one of the most prevalent spinal abnormalities, appearing far into puberty. Schroth exercises (SE) and core-Stabilization exercises (CE) have become very prominent among the specialized and general methods to scoliosis treatment. However, their effects are still unclear and there is insufficient evidence of superiority between them. Therefore, the aims of this review were to (1) evaluate and, (2) compare the effectiveness of these methods on Cobb angles (CA) in AIS.
Methods: A systematic review was performed on SE and CE papers. The databases included PubMed, Scopus, MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, CINAHL and Google Scholar from 2005 to June 2022. The PEDro scale assessed the quality of the papers.
Results: After screening 410 papers, nine papers (SE=5, CE=3 and SE vs. CE=1), with 339 participants, were admitted for review (PEDro=6). Among them, three (SE=moderate evidence) and two papers (CE=limited evidence) reported clinically significant reductions in CA>5˚, alone or compared to control or other exercise methods, while only one paper (very limited evidence) showed the relative superiority of SE (-7.16˚) compared to CE (-3.27˚). However, three papers did not show clinically significant results (CA<5˚).
Conclusions: Moderate and limited evidence suggests that both SE and CE can effectively improve CA, respectively. There is very limited evidence to suggest that SE is more effective than CE in treating AIS. Thus, the definitive answers to the questions, especially in regard to the superiority between these two methods, remained unclear. Further high-quality studies must be conducted in the future.