spinal decompression therapy

The spinal decompression treatment can be used for treating various conditions. Herniated disc is one of the most common condition people receive this treatment for. What it basically does is cause the herniation in the disc to expand. This is done by putting pressure on the surrounding nerve roots of the spine.

Decompression takes the pressure off from the discs that have been damaged shrink back to their original sizes, thus reducing the pain. Degenerative spondylolisthesis and disc bulge are other such conditions.

The first type of spinal decompression is the surgical type. Again, this can be done using two different methods. One is microdisectomy which is also known as micro decompression. The other type is known as laminectomy which also referred to as open decompression. The first type, micro decompression is a minimally surgical procedure. Here, a portion of the herniated pulpolsus is extracted with the help of an instrument. At times, even a laser beam is used to do the work.

The name microdisectomy is given to it because the procedure demands the use of a microscope for magnification purposes. The second type of the surgical decompression is laminectomy. This is an invasive surgical procedure which requires a small portion of the arch in the bone to be removed from the spine. This is done so that the pressure on the nerve is minimized. This procedure is chosen by only those people who have not found relief from other options of treatment.

The next type of the spinal decompression treatment is the non surgical type. This kind of treatment is achieved totally from mechanical traction. This is basically done with the help of a device that is applied via an on board computer. This computer is in charge of controlling the angle and the force of the disc distraction.

This in turn, decreases the natural propensity of the body to resist external force and generate muscle spasms. The control exerted by the computer applies a force to the discs of the spine thus decreasing the pressure on the discs.

Amongst the two, the non surgical spinal decompression treatment is much preferred than the surgical treatment. Perhaps the reason behind this is that the surgical treatment does not give prolonged results. There have been cases where the patients undergoing the surgical treatment were injured. The non surgical treatment was basically pioneered and developed by Dr. Allan Dyer. This happened in the year 1985. Ten years later, in 1991, he actually discovered and introduced a decompression table that was called Vax-D. This was the very first non surgical decompression table in the history of decompression.

The original table was designed in such a way that a pneumatic system was made to control it. This system applied and released the force gradually. The traction force was basically applied to for decreasing the spasm of the muscle. A new and improved version of the Vax-D non surgical table was launched in the year 2004.

This was called the G2 and was released by the Vax-D Medical Technologies. What made this new device more effective was the fact that it used components that were run by electricity instead of the traditional technology of pneumatics. These components were more precise and led to better results. The G2 was also incorporated with a totally enhanced on board computer system. This system institutes a logarithmic curve.

After the first non surgical spinal decompression table, many doctors and medical organizations attempted to build other devices of its kind. Each of these attempts were developed believing to enhance the effectiveness of the original concept. One technique similar to the original one is called the IDD therapy or the Inter-vertebral Differential Dynamics therapy.

The non surgical spinal decompression therapy is also known as the NSSD therapy. It is now promoted as a safe way to get rid of spinal disorders. It is effective without involving the need of other invasive methods that include the use of injections and surgery. The actual decompression treatment works with serial 15 alternating decompression and relaxation cycles in a span of one minute only. The decompression is achieved by employing a logarithmic decompression curve.

The whole treatment lasts for about 30 minutes. When the decompression phase is going on, what really happens is that the pressure on the disc is decreased. At the same time, a vacuum effect is produced on the nucleus pulpolsus. Through this technique, the disc receives nutrition that heals the annulus fibrosis.

The idea behind the whole concept of non surgical spinal decompression is really simple; it is done when the lumbar spine receives distractive forces in different directions. This results in the formation of a kind of negative pressure somewhere on the center of the inter-vertebral disc.

This creates the aforementioned suctioning effect which in turn reduces the size of the bulging disc. The nerve decompression reduces a great deal thereby decreasing the pain. This whole treatment simultaneously creates an osmotic gradient that helps the disc to absorb water and nutrients.

This kind of decompression treatment is generally opted because it is non surgical and also non invasive. Also, no external drug and medication intake is required to achieve the desired and long term results. This type of spinal decompression treatment is now being more and more favored by all those who have tried different methods that have considerably failed.