Our commitment

The “Fondation Yves Cotrel pour la Recherche en Pathologie Rachidienne” was created on January 22, 1999 . It became official through a convention on October 27, 1999 with  the “Institut de France” at Yves Cotrel's instigation.

The first research theme selected by the Foundation is the research into the etiology of idiopathic scoliosis : this disease causes spinal deformity and impairs so many people, in particular infants, throughout the world and whose causes and progressive mechanisms are still unknown. 

Why?
There is no clear causal agent of these spinal deformities which affect a high percentage of infants of school age (around 5% in France). Most of the idiopathic scoliosis are progressive. If they are diagnosed at an early stage, there is a high risk of being severe. In adulthood, they might get worse and they often have inexorable consequences.  Paradoxically, some forms which are sometimes early forms can regress spontaneously whereas some others have no tendency to progress.

Is there any treatment for the moment ?
Because there are no reliable criteria to make a prognosis, the treatment chosen is only determined by the seriousness of symptoms.
This empiric method of therapeutical decisions might have negative consequences on final results in case of delay or might lead to long and useless treatments in case of hasty choice. The orthopedic treatment applied for progresive cases is made by using external brace worn until spinal growth.

Surgery is only for severe cases, its aim is to fuse the twisted vertebrae together to allow their stabilization, in a word it means that to allow its stability, on a long segment, one of the main functions of the spinal column is removed : flexibility.  

 One cannot be satisfied with this situation.
Because disease has no limit, one thought it was necessary to abolish the limit of research.

 

For this mission, the skills and the willingness of many people were rallied. The meetings which have been organized since the very beginning are more and more productive and friendly.

The Foundation mobilizes throughout the world teams of researchers which are expert on several disciplines which might be relevant to the research; in order to find out elements that will enable to the identification of idiopathic scoliosis, to predict their progresses, to simplify their treatments, to prevent their appearances and to be able to give answers to all the people affected by this disease.

Each year, the researchers meet up at the Institut de France in order to get informed and be aware of their own research; they seem to be more and more complementary.

Henceforth, despite the geographical distance, they meet up and pool their resources to get ahead together.