King Richard III Suffered From Scoliosis, 3D Model Reveals

England's King Richard III did suffer from scoliosis, a newly created 3D model of his spine confirms.

Scientists at the University of Leicester have successfully uncovered the truth about King Richard III's spinal condition.  Previous findings highlighted the physical deformity of the king who ruled over England from 1483-1485. Even Shakespeare characterized the king as a hunchback. But whether these descriptions were based on the king's real appearance or just claims made to damage his reputation, was not clear till now.

The new 3D model confirms these claims and presents the fact for the first time that the king did suffer from scoliosis, a medical condition in which a person's spine is curved from side to side.

The newly created 3D model of the spine allows the users to have a 360 degrees representation of the king's spine, making is evident that he suffered from the abnormal curving of the spine. It is seen that the kind suffered from a severe curve to his right and also twisting to a certain degree that resulted in a spiral shape.

The entire visualisation is based on the research led by osteoarchaelogist Dr Jo Appleby, of the University's School of Archaeology and Ancient History. Some of the key findings show that  the king's scoliosis was spiral nature, he had a well-balanced curve. He had severe scoliosis that developed during the last few years of growth. The king would have stood nearly 5 feet 8 inches tall but for his condition. 

The king's skeleton was analysed macroscopically to look for clues of spinal deformity and other changes in the tissue. Using CT scans with 3D reconstruction of each bone made from digital model, the spine was scanned. The polymer replicas of each vertebra was created using 3D printing.  The polymer reconstruction was photographed from 19 points and the pictures were stitched together digitally to create the interactive 3D model. 

Dr Jo Appleby said, "The major finding we have made is being able to reconstruct the three-dimensional nature of the scoliosis and understand what it would have looked like. Obviously, the skeleton was flattened out when it was in the ground. We had a good idea of the sideways aspect of the curve, but we didn't know the precise nature of the spiral aspect of the condition. The arthritis in the spine meant it could only be reconstructed in a specific way, meaning that we can get a very accurate idea of the shape of the curve. It's really good to be able to produce this 3D reconstruction rather than a 2D picture, as you get a good sense of how the spine would have actually appeared."

The finding is published in The Lancet.