Spinal decompression therapy is the non-surgical treatment of choice for back pain caused by a lumbar herniated disc. This is one way we helped this patient below in our Columbus, Ohio office:
Patient: 42 year old male, 5’-9”, 200lbs, blood pressure 130/80mmHg, pulse 72bpm, and 16 breaths per minute.
Mechanism of Injury: The patient was lifting a heavy object at work and felt a pop in his low back. He has been working in the shipping department of a grocery store for the last 4 years.
Subjective: He reports severe pain in his left lower back rated 8/10 and has difficulty sitting to standing, bending, and lying down. He has numbness in the back of his left leg that extends to the bottom of his foot. He has shooting leg pain when he coughs, sneezes, or laughs.
Visual Inspection: He has an antalgic lean to the right.
Manual Palpation: He has severe muscle spasm in both of his quadratus lumborum, his left hip is elevated, and there is severe pain and tenderness over the L5 vertebra.
Range of Motion Assessment: He could not bend forward more than 5 degrees without shooting leg pain, could not lean to the left any degree, and could lean back 8 degrees before pain began.
Lumbar X-Rays: Bone density is adequate with no evidence of fracture. There is no evidence of soft tissue swelling. The disc height between L5/S1 is reduced in height and there is a left wedge of the L5/S1 joint space.
MRI Lumbar Spine: MRI showed an L5/S1 left lateral disc herniation/protrusion abutting the S1 nerve root.
Spinal Decompression Treatment Day 1: After treatment with 15 minutes of lumbar spinal decompression therapy at 55lbs, he could sit to stand with less discomfort, and his pain was reduced to a 6/10. He could lean to the left 10 degrees, as compared to none, and he can laugh without the shooting leg pain.
After 1 Week of Treatment: After 3 treatments of spinal decompression, his leg pain has not returned, coughing did not aggravate his condition, and his pain was down to a 4/10.
The patient came in for treatment for 3 more weeks and has a complete resolution of his low back and leg pain with a progressive spinal decompression treatment up to 75lbs.
The patient received spinal decompression two times per month for 2 months and was released from care after the third month due to improved mobility, strength, and reduced numbness and pain to 0/10. His blood pressure was 122/78mmHg.
Many patients who seek our chiropractic services have similar outcomes, with improved ranges of motion, increased strength, improved mood, and normalized blood pressure.
Spinal decompression therapy has helped many herniated disc patients and can get your body back to normal. With diagnostic lumbar x-rays, chiropractic care, and decompression therapy, and home care instructions, their problems were solved, and so can yours.
Call us in Columbus, Ohio at 614-428-9310 to schedule your herniated disc appointment to see if you are a candidate for spinal decompression today!