Comparative analysis of Klapp and GPR methods in the treatment of idiopathic scoliosis in adults

Abstract

Scoliosis is a pathological deviation of the vertebral column in the frontal plane, associated or not to the rotation of the vertebrae in the axial and sagittal plane. It is measured by the Cobb angle, considered the gold standard in the diagnosis. The Global Postural Reeducation (GPR), conceived in the 80s by Philippe Souchard, consists of the muscular work in chains, thus allowing the reorganization and restoration of the muscles maintainers of posture. The klapp method was developed by Rudolf Klapp in the decade of 40, after the observation that only Bipeds had scoliosis, where they were made activities on quadruped position, attenuating the strength of gravity on the spine. Our purpose was to compare the two therapeutic methods in the treatment of idiopathic scoliosis adulthood verifying if there is effectiveness at the end of the proposed protocol. Subjects were selected 6 female, aged between 20 and 30 years, patients with idiopathic scoliosis, who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria established. These were divided into 3 equal groups: control (who did not attend any treatment), klapp and RPG. Nine sessions were carried out with 50 minutes duration for 3 weeks. At the beginning and end of the treatment, the individuals underwent postural evaluation and examination of RX. Both methods reduced the scoliosis present in subjects after the treatment period as compared to the increase seen in the control group (6.7%), with a slight advantage for the klapp method (a reduction of 21%) in relation to the RPG ( a reduction of 17.5%). But the results were not significant. Although both methods have reduced the Cobb angle, showing a clinical relevance of results, this reduction was not statistically significant. The reduced sample size certainly influence here, requiring research in larger groups to obtain more reliable results.