Breakthrough treatment for chronic back pain and sciatica!
Developed at Pneu-Back Institute in Idaho, this new personalized treatment approach excels at treating spinal disc problems. Treatment progresses through three phases: 1. pain relief, 2. healing the disc and 3. fixing the muscular instability to protect the spine from future injury.
Key features of the treatment include active rehabilitation to break the pain cycle, two methods of loading and unloading discs to speed healing, monitoring and improving posture and strengthening the core muscles which support the spine.
Sciatica, bulging discs and pinched nerves
Sciatica and other shooting pain down the leg are often caused by damaged spinal discs said to be disc protrusions/extrusions or bulging/herniated discs. When disc material pushes down on a nerve root, it can cause excruciating pain down the leg. Traction has been used in physical therapy for decades, but applying the traction intermittently has shown to significantly improve outcomes over standard care. The Pneu-Back Program includes intermittent traction and the therapist is able to target the distribution of forces to relieve pinched nerves more quickly and speed healing. Also, therapists provide manual therapy during traction to reduce pain more quickly. The first goal of treatment is to stop the shooting pain down the leg. Then the focus turns to helping the disc heal and fixing the instability responsible for the injury, which means activating and strengthening the core muscles for long-term benefit.
Degenerative disc disease, osteoarthritis and foraminal stenosis
Degenerative disc disease results in narrower discs which can cause other problems such as osteoarthritis of the facet joint or foraminal stenosis. Although degenerative discs were long thought to be irreversible, recent peer-reviewed research suggest loading and unloading of discs may result in some degree of regeneration. The Pneu-Back Program provides loading and unloading of discs in three postures. At Sequoia, we have seen remarkable recovery of patients with advanced degenerative disc disease, even completely collapsed disc.
Chemical radiculitis, post-surgical and idiopathic pain
Sometimes back pain is idiopathic, meaning the cause of the pain is unclear. One example is a patient who experiences shooting pain down the legs but the MRI does not show anything pinching the nerve. In these cases, doctors often treat the condition as chemical radiculitis. This means one of the discs is leaking inflammatory proteins onto a nerve root and the resulting pain is very similar to a pinched nerve. In other cases, the disc may be leaking but the pain chemicals are not contacting a nerve so the pain is localized to the back. Post-surgical patients sometimes experience idiopathic pain like this. It does not mean the surgery was unnecessary or that the surgery failed. It just means the patient’s back had more than one problem.
The Pneu-Back Program has shown considerable success with these patients. The theory explaining why this treatment works is this: Vibration increases circulation and nutrition to the disc. Also, loading and unloading the discs increases hydration and nutrition to the disc. These two actions work together to provide the disc with the nutrients it needs to heal and ultimately the leaking stops.
