Redefining Conservative Treatment: Comprehensive Rehabilitation for Children with Idiopathic Scoliosis

The term "conservative treatment" has long served as the standard designation for non-operative management in idiopathic scoliosis, yet its linguistic and conceptual adequacy has remained largely unexamined. This paper critically evaluates the utility of the term "conservative" in the medical and scoliosis-specific contexts. It explores whether "(re)habilitation" offers a more clinically accurate, patient-centred, and functionally descriptive substitute. We argue that this terminological shift better reflects the active, multidisciplinary, and demanding nature of non-operative scoliosis care, and carries concrete clinical implications for how treatment targets are defined and pursued.