Scoliosis is an enigmatical disease (not so uncommon) which results in a three dimensional deformation of the spine. At present the only treatment for severe cases is spinal fusion, not a particularly desirable solution. The purpose of this study is to develop new tools for understanding this mystery and improving surgical procedures. We present preliminary results concerning a certain hypothesis about three dimensional spinal configuration: namely, the static erect spine assumes a shape which minimizes a hypothetical energy function. We obtain this minimum by an application of Newton methods on manifolds.

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2000-2001 Program: Mathematics in Multimedia