ABSTRACT

Objective:

Scoliosis is a spine deformity and also involves some adaptive changes of in paraspinal muscles and ligaments. Some studies found paraspinal EMG activity differences, thus, we hypothesized that blocking the muscle activity of paraspinal muscles in one side of the spine may produce a scoliotic curve.

Methods:

15 female Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into 3 groups as R, L and C. After intraperitoneal anesthesia, for Group R, Botulinum toxin-A was injected to right lumbar paraspinal muscles with the help of EMG. For Group L, Botulinum toxin-A injections were applied in the same manner, into the left paraspinal muscles. In Group C, 1 cc saline injection was applied to the right paraspinal muscles.

Results:

In the R Group, left apex lumbar curve was observed in 3 rats. In the L Group, right apex lumbar curve was observed in 3 rats. In the C Group, no one developed any coronal curves. When we evaluated the curves under fluoroscopy, we realized that all of the curves were disappeared under counter-bending maneuver opposite to curves which has caused us to think that that curves were not structural curves.

Conclusion:

In this study, we aimed to create a non-surgical scoliosis model in rats by injecting botulinum toxin-A into the paraspinal muscles. To our knowledge, this was the first scoliosis model used botulinum toxin-A injection. Unfortunately, we did not achieve successful results. Future studies with longer follow-up period, larger number of animals, repeated injections and higher dose of Botulinum toxin-A may create a scoliosis model.