Thursday, January 5, 2012

The Basics of Mechanical Spinal Decompression Treatment

By David Greene


Is spinal decompression a valuable treatment for back pain? In theory, distractive force applied to the lumbar spine that is significant enough will create negative pressure to the center of intervertebral discs.

The negative pressure that results from the traction creates a vacuum space that allows water and nutrients to come in from the extra blood flow and reduces pressure on inflamed nerves. The spinal decompression allows lick would to fill the void which can alleviate pain from vertebral compression.

Normally, spinal disks have extremely bad circulation so the decompression treatment allows for an opportunity to correct that problem. The working theory is that this increase circulation helps problems such as sciatica, disc herniation's, disc bulges, disc degeneration, and spinal studios. There are plenty of reports of patients receiving good results from decompression who have failed other pain management treatments.

Origination of Spinal Decompression Treatment

The original creator of spinal decompression treatment is a gentleman from Canada, Dr. Alan Dyer. This prototype was created back in the early 1990s and he claim to be pain-free after using it, this was known as the VAX-D table. This table utilized a pneumatic pump to apply and release lumbar traction.

In 2004, the system was upgraded to include computer control of an electrically driven system, which replaced the pneumatic pump. Other doctors and inventors have come forth to created similar devices that follow the same general theory. IDD (intervertebral differential dynamics) is a similar product.

How Effective is Mechanical Spinal Decompression

As with anything that doesn't have a long history of use, there are conflicting views of how much good comes from the use of the Vax-D and other inventions of a similar type. One study shows better than a 68% success rate, but the results were on a very limited number of individuals. Other studies have not been nearly as conclusive.

In both 2004 and 2005, reviews of the Vax-D and other powered traction devices did not indicate that they were effective in treating lower back pain for any of the known causes.

In 2006 there was a cumulative study published which looked at multiple years of spinal decompression although it back to 1975 and concluded that there was nothing proven for effectiveness. The report called for better testing methods and better standards of which to rate effectiveness of the treatment.

Outside of the study from 2006 however, there are some showing very good results. The scientific community as a whole needs larger studies to show the significant effectiveness definitively of spinal decompression. Millions of people are dealing with low back pain and it is hoped that multiple larger studies will definitively show the positive results.

Because the studies have not been conclusive, improve standards for measuring results is warranted since the success rate so far have been very high anecdotally with the therapy. Once larger studies come out supporting the treatment, insurance companies will be more likely to start covering the spinal decompression treatment.




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