While there’s still some uncertainty about the efficacy of spinal decompression therapy in the world of healthcare, a lot of work as been done to prove that the treatment is beneficial to patients and practitioners alike. First knowing the how and why of spinal decompression is critical to understanding how health care practitioners have been able to achieve incredible results with this therapy.

Traction Therapy Improved

At first, spinal decompression therapy may sound a lot like traction: after all, the goal of both is to create negative intradiscal pressure in the spine. However, traction therapy has been criticized by clinicians for providing inconsistent and short-lived relief— if any. In comparison decompression works with the patient’s body to fix the underlying causes of back and neck pain.

In traction therapy, a force is applied along the patient’s spine in an attempt to stretch the spine and surrounding muscles and joints. This force, created either mechanically or manually, often activates the body’s natural response to resist the pull, tightening paraspinal muscles and actually causing an increase of intradiscal pressure.

Spinal decompression tables have been developed to account for this potential negative outcome of decompression treatments and, as a result, are able to offer treatments that sense resistance in the patient’s muscles and stay below that threshold. This allows spinal decompression tables to create negative intradiscal pressure for longer periods, increasing effective treatment times and improving the patient’s condition more quickly.

A Non-Surgical Solution

Spinal surgeries are frequently recommended for chronic lumbar pain, and these surgeries have high costs for the patient in terms of money, recovery time, and potential for complication or failure. Conservative estimates place the frequency of failed back surgery syndrome, or FBSS, at 20% of all patients who have undergone operation, with other estimates going as high as 40%.

With FBSS, patients relapse to the same level or higher of pain, and in the case of fusion surgeries, can also experience reduced mobility. Spinal decompression therapy is a non-invasive, non-drug treatment that works to heal herniated or bulging discs naturally, and to great success.

Better Patient Outcomes

Several studies have shown the effectiveness of spinal decompression therapy in patients with chronic lumbar pain. Results overwhelmingly report pain reduction in patients who have received treatments with a spinal decompression therapy table as shown in a literature review of spinal decompression studies. This review reported success rates between 77% and 86%, where success is measured in a lasting reduction of pain in patients following completion of a spinal decompression treatment protocol. Other medical studies and case reports show improved conditions in patients with chronic symptoms, FBSS, and other lumbar conditions. Often they are able to identify improvement in symptoms even before the protocol is complete.

Spinal decompression therapy has, from its inception, been designed around achieving better results for patients with lumbar conditions and pain. With its innovative approach to tension and resistance, patients are able to see lasting results more quickly, leading to happier customers and clinicians. Want to learn more about the efficacy of spinal decompression? Check out our article below.