[Physical measurement of the dorsal kyphosis in 14-17-year old patients with Scheuermann's disease and in matched healthy controls].

The modified use of the Debrunner-kyphometer (a special protractor to measure the dorsal kyphosis by an objective physical method) is presented. After proving the validity and reproducibility of the measuring method, the dorsal kyphosis of patients with Scheuermann's disease and of matched healthy controls was measured. The aim of the measurements was to assess the physiologic values of kyphosis and to investigate into the distribution of Scheuermann-patients regarding the grade of their dorsal sagittal curvature. In contrast with the everyday routine (subjective judgement of the sagittal curvatures or measuring on X-ray films), this method offers the advantage of an objective assessment without using X-rays. The presented simple method is recommended for screening school-children and for monitoring patients with Scheuermann's disease.