Is It Right for Me
Although spinal decompression therapy is certainly a revolution in effective, non-invasive treatment for severe back and neck pain, it is not for everyone. Decompression therapy is usually recommended for patients who have low back or neck pain, who have failed conventional therapy (physiotherapy and chiropractic), and who are considering surgery. Typically, the people who tend to have the best results fall into one of the following categories:
- Pain due to herniated and bulging lumbar/cervical discs that is more than four weeks old.
- Sciatica
- Spinal Stenosis
- Facet Syndrome
- Recurrent pain from a failed back surgery that is more than six months old.
- Persistent pain from degenerated disc disease.
- Patients available for four weeks of treatment protocol.
- Patients at least 18 years of age.
There are some cases where people should not undergo spinal decompression therapy. These include:
- Pregnancy
- Spinal cancer
- Severe osteoporosis
- Abdominal aortic aneurysm
- Abdominal surgery within last years
- Lumbar fusion of the affected symptomatic level
- Unstable spondylolisthesis
- Disc infections
- Severe peripheral neuropathy
- Osteomyelitis
- Meningitis
Ultimately, whether you think this is for you or not is not as important as if the doctor who specializes in Spinal Decompression determines if you are a candidate or not and will accept your case. It is important that prospective patients do not get their hopes up, as it is crucial that the Spinal Decompression doctor really evaluate your individual case.
If you were to come to our office for a consultation, you should expect to receive 3 pages of paperwork even before seeing the doctor. Then when you see the one of us, we will ask you to tell us your story. Of course we will order appropriate tests as indicated. It is absolutely vital that we have all the information necessary to determine if you are a candidate for success. An MRI is the best study of choice. We will perform a thorough examination that consists of physical, orthopedic, neurological, and chiropractic testing. We also use computerized testing to measure how your body has compensated for the problem that you now face. One of those computerized tests is called a sEMG (or surface electromyogram). Then, don’t be surprised if it takes us a night to determine if spinal decompression will work for you. After we have reviewed all of the information (such as your history, examination, and special diagnostic tests) , we will sit down with you and go over if you are a candidate and if so what your body requires.