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'Pacemaker' used to straighten curved spine A Canadian orthopedic research team has created structured scoliosis in growing animals— and then straightened the animal's spine by using what is in effect, an adaption of the cardiac pacemaker. Both processes—the deformation and the straightening—take about four weeks. Team members say the work has progressed to the point that the straightening technique may soon become clinically useful. Walter Bobechko, MD, staff orthopedic surgeon at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, outlined the work with the "spinal pacemaker" in a recent rehabilitation meeting in Toronto. He is the surgeon in charge of the multidisciplinary team working on the project. The device can be termed a pacemaker because it puts the muscles controlling the vertebrae into intermittent controlled spasm forcing them either into—or out of —normal alignment. The pacemaker is totally implanted, and sends out impulses every second. The experimental work is being done in pigs and

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