[Kyphosis and kyphotic posture in children and adolescents]

Kyphosis is a sagittal deviation of the spine that presents as an anterior spinal curvature. It is a frequent reason for consultation during adolescence. It is necessary to know how to differentiate between a simple postural kyphosis that is flexible and reducible, and requires no further investigation, from a true kyphosis that requires at minimum a radiological evaluation with films of the entire spine, in AP and lateral views. If vertebral epiphysitis is most often at the origins of the sagittal vertebral deviations encountered in daily practice, the other causes pose diagnostic and therapeutic problems that are often more complex. They include congenital, paralytic, infectious, cancerous and post-traumatic kyphosis, or kyphosis due to constitutional bone diseases. Surgical treatments, that have only an exceptional place in treatment of the regular kyphosis of the adolescent, are potentially indicated in all of the other situations.