Ella’s mum knew her back didn’t look right, scans instantly showed why

Key points

• Scoliosis is marked by a curvature and twisting of the spine.
• It is typically diagnosed in teenagers and affects young girls much more than boys. In most cases, there is no known cause, but it often runs in families.
• The condition can often appear suddenly and worsen quickly through growth spurts in puberty.
• Most cases of scoliosis are mild, and in the vast majority, no treatment is needed. But in severe cases, it can cause difficulty with children’s breathing and their internal organs.

Ella Venville’s mother could tell looking at her daughter’s scans that “something was severely wrong”.

The black and white photographs, handed to them in an envelope at the local hospital, showed a notable curve in the Ballarat teenager’s spine.

Scarlett Pope (left) and Ella Venville (right) have both had surgery for scoliosis. Credit:Paul Jeffers

“For us to be able to see it, without anyone telling us a diagnosis, was quite a shock,” said Ella’s mother, Mel.

Scoliosis, which is marked by a curvature and twisting of the spine, is typically diagnosed in teenagers and affects young girls much more than boys. In most cases, there is no known cause, but it often runs in families.

Because the condition can often appear suddenly and worsen quickly through growth spurts in puberty, clinicians are urging parents to be aware of the condition.

Epworth spinal surgeon Yi Yang has noticed a recent cluster of cases where the scoliosis was more advanced than he’d expected, as people avoided medical appointments during the pandemic or as a result of repeated bans on many types of surgeries during COVID-19 waves.

Patient scans of Ella Venville.

Yang, an associate professor at the University of Melbourne, said things were now functioning near normal in the private sector, but for those public patients waiting for surgeries or appointments, delays remain.

Most cases of scoliosis are mild and in the vast majority, no treatment is needed. But in severe cases, it can cause difficulty with children’s breathing and their internal organs.

Yang said only about 1 per cent of the population would develop scoliosis. Of that, only 10 per cent would require medical treatment such as bracing, which can stop the condition from worsening, or surgery to reduce the spinal curve.

Scarlett’s scans, before and after.

Curvature of less than 20 degrees was considered mild and more than 40 to 50 degrees was considered severe. Mild cases may not need any treatment at all if the patient wasn’t expected to grow much more.

It was important that surgery wasn’t delayed for the patients who needed it, Yang said.

“The surgery for a 60-degree curvature is very different to the surgeries for a 90-degree curvature,” he said.

“In some cases, patients may require multiple surgeries for something which required one surgery previously because their scoliosis has become more severe with time and growth. The surgeries can be more complicated and the outcomes worse.”

Mel Venville first noticed her daughter’s back “just didn’t look right” when she was trying on clothes. She said Ella, now 15 and in year 10, appeared to have one ribcage bigger than the other.

The case was severe enough to require surgery. Coincidentally, Ella’s school friend, Scarlett Pope, had surgery a year earlier for a similar curve, which was affecting her breathing.

“I was shocked at how fast it happened. It was the blink of an eye. It wasn’t as easy to breathe as my lungs were getting squashed,” Pope said.

Epworth paediatric nurse unit manager Meredith Elliott said that while scoliosis surgeries were some of the more major planned surgeries they conducted on children, the required hospital stay had drastically reduced during her career, from several weeks to three to five days.

Elliott said some people still might not be aware of the condition.

“I walk around the supermarket and I see kids that I know have scoliosis,” she said.

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