Lumbopelvic alignment and sagittal balance in asymptomatic children and adoslescents

Abstract

The maintenance of bipedal posture is strongly influenced by the balance between the vertebral column and the pelvis. However, there are currently no studies reporting the relationships between sagittal trunk balance and lumbopelvic alignment in healthy children and adolescents, as well as the characteristics and correlations. Therefore the objective of this work was: to describe values of the variables of lombopelvic alignment in asymptomatic children and adolescents, as well as to verify the correlations between the measures of sagittal balance, sacral inclination, lumbar lordosis and thoracic kyphosis, regarding the age range of the sample and sex. Were included 39 panoramic digital radiographs in orthostasis of the spine in the right profile incidence in children and adolescents. The variables measured were: thoracic kyphosis, lumbar lordosis, sacral inclination and sagittal balance. Intra- and inter-rater reproducibility was performed with 10 randomly selected exams 1 week after initial collection. For better understanding the sample was stratified in sex and age group. The sacral inclination variable showed a significant and high correlation with lumbar lordosis in the total sample (r = 0.664, p <0.001), in the female group (r = 0.665, p = 0.018) and in the age group stratifications (r = 0.667; p = 0.001 and p = 0.005). Being still very high in the male group (r = 0.732, p <0.001). Sacral inclination also showed significant results with sagittal balance, with a moderate correlation (r = 0.325, p = 0.04). There was a correlation between sacral inclination and lumbar lordosis, for all the stratifications of the sample, and also with the sagittal balance analyzing the total sample.