Stoop and round back
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
Round back (stoop) - this is the most common deviation, in which there is a pronounced thoracic kyphosis (which captures part of the lumbar spine) and a significant decrease in lumbar lordosis. The stoop is characterized by the fact that the head is usually tilted forward; the thorax is flattened; The shoulders are lowered forward; the blades are pterygoid; the back is round; belly bulging or hanging; buttocks flattened; knees are half bent. The muscles of the trunk are weakened in this position, so you can take a correct posture only for a short time.
The stoop should be differentiated, especially in prepubertal and pubertal age, with such a serious pathology of the spinal column as the Sheyermann-Mau disease.
Distinctive features of the Sheyermann-Mau disease are back pain (absent in the case of a round back), as well as a sharp restriction of mobility of the spinal column in the thoracolumbar region. In addition, with the Sheyermann-Mau disease on the roentgenogram of the sagittal profile of the spinal column, wedge-shaped deformation of the vertebral bodies, Schmorl's hernia, narrowing of the intervertebral spaces in the kyphosis zone are revealed.
With a round-bended back, thoracic kyphosis and lumbar lordosis are significantly expressed; increased the angle of the pelvis; buttocks sharply protruded back, belly protruded; waist shortened; The head, neck and shoulders are tilted forward; the thorax is flattened. There is underdevelopment of abdominal muscles, which causes the lowering of internal organs.
This disorder must be differentiated with a pronounced lumbar lordosis with spondylolisthesis (slipping the body of the vertebrae anteriorly along with the overlying spine.) The vertebra L5 most often slides).
Distinctive features of spondylolisthesis, which occurs in children, are: pain syndrome and limitation of mobility in the lumbar spine; a symptom of the "reins" - the defens of long extensors of the back in the lumbar region; a symptom of the "telescope" is the approach of the costal arch to the pelvic bones and a number of other symptoms.
[1]