Spinal decompression therapy is a highly successful method for treating discs in the cervical and lumbosacral parts of the spine without surgery. Traction creates negative pressure and a vacuum effect within the disc itself, located between two vertebrae, and in this way draws the herniation back inside the disc. Clinical studies to date show efficacy in as many as 70–85% of cases.
With the refinement of the technique and of computerised devices, this method has become very popular in North America and Europe. It gives particularly good results in people who spend their working hours in a seated position, as well as in younger people with a disc herniation in the lumbosacral part of the spine.
Traction is a painless treatment technique: by applying a strictly dosed mechanical force (in intensity and duration), the gap between the vertebral bodies is increased and the trapped disc or nerve is released along the spinal column. This principle of action reduces pain and makes it possible to treat the disc without surgery.
The REHABILITY Clinic has the English BTL-16 Plus decompression device and the electrically adjustable BTL-1300 Trac traction bed. Continuous, intermittent and harmonised traction programmes are used for cervical and lumbar decompression therapy.
What the clinical studies say
Journal of Neurosurgery (1994): decompression reduces the pressure within the lumbar discs to as low as −100 mm Hg (compared with +100 mm Hg when standing, or +140 mm Hg when sitting), and the negative pressure brings fluid and nutrients to the disc. Journal of Neurological Research (1998): across 20 medical centres, 778 patients with a disc herniation underwent an average of 20 decompression therapies, with an overall success rate of 71% (73% for a single herniated disc, 72% for several, 68% for facet syndrome and for patients in whom surgery had failed).
Indications
- disc herniation, disc bulging, disc degeneration, polydiscopathy
- pain after disc surgery; spinal injuries
- spondylosis and spondylarthrosis, facet syndrome
- radicular pain syndrome, entrapment of the spinal nerve root
- reduced mobility of the spinal column, compression fracture
- lumbar and cervical chronic pain syndrome
- headache, dizziness
- curvature of the spine in children, sports injuries
Protocol
A total of 5–20 decompressions are needed for a satisfactory effect: the first 5 one per day, the remaining treatments every other day. A treatment lasts 15–30 minutes.