Scientific Research Behind Spinal Decompression

In a recent study of 219 patients with herniated discs and degerative disc disease, 86 per cent who completed the therapy showed immediate improvement and resolution of their symptoms; 92 per cent improved overall; five patients (two per cent) relapsed withing 90 days of initial treatment.

Lipson, in a 2004 paper in the New England Journal of Medicine states that 151,000 spinal fusions are done each year in the US. He advocates restraint because of the complications and typically modest benefits associated with surgery. The end result of surgery can be reduced mobility, stiffness, and continuing pain - "failed back syndrome.

Decompression therapy, addresses both primary and secondary causes of low back and referred leg pain. We thus submit that decompression therapy should be considered first, before the patient undergoes a surgical procedure which permanently alters the anatomy and function of the affected lumbar spine segment.

Successful reduction of intradiscal pressure with decompression therapy represents a technological advance...

We consider decompression therapy to be a primary treatment modality for low back pain associated with lumbar disc herniation at single or multiple levels, degerative disc disease, facet arthropathy, and decreased spine mobility. We believe that post-surgical patients with persistent pain or "failed back syndrome" should bot be considered candidates for further surgery until a reasonable trial of decompression has been tried.

Disc distraction shows evidence of regenerative potential in degenerated intervertebral discs as evaluated by protein expression, magnetic resonance imaging, and messenger ribonucleic acid expression analysis. "Distraction results in disc rehydration, stimulated extracellular matrix gene expression, and increased numbers of protein-expressing cells.