Thursday, March 08, 2012

Spinal Decompression and Chiropractic Care for a Herniated Disc


Herniated disc left lateral stenosis resolved with spinal decompression and Chiropractic care
 
I have been utilizing spinal decompression in my NYC practice for over seven years. I have seen countless patients avoid back surgery.
When  a patients come into our office with a MRI that shows a herniated disc and lateral stenosis that abuts the Left L4 nerve root they usually have a great deal of leg pain “Sciatica”. The term abuts is often in medical terms describes a disc that is “touching or leaning about” the nerve.
 
This was the case with the patient case that I am writing about.
A female patient initially came in over  6 months ago with a great deal of pain in her left leg which was accompanied by weakness. The symptoms kept her from doing the things that she enjoyed doing like exercise and walking, and sitting created a great deal of pain.

She did not want to take pain killers because they just made her unsteady and tired. This is a major reason some people avoid taking medication to ease pain. In the long run medication simply masks the symptoms of an underlying issue, it doesn't fix the root cause of the pain. 
 
When she presented with a MRI that clearly demonstrated a Herniated disc at the Lumbar 4-5  level that put pressure on L4 nerve root. We talked and discussed what we could do to help her and we concluded that, for her, spinal decompression on the DRX 9000 combined with Cox flexion distraction was very likely going to reduce her symptoms and would actually address the underlying problem.
She had already begun noticing a reduction in symptoms by the 6th session.
 
We completed the 20 visit protocol in 5 weeks and had her continue with her core strengthening program which she had started with us so we could strengthen the muscles that lead to the structural weakness, which in turn allowed for an environment where injury was more likely.

The reason I wanted to write this case study was that I sent her for a Post MRI and compared the previous MRI results. I was happy to see that the Spinal disc was no longer resting on the nerve and the disc height was increased.
The patient has since returned to her life she now exercises without pain and is Pain free without the use of drugs or surgery. She is currently coming in for preventive Chiropractic care one to two times a month and works on her Core muscles strengthening daily.
If you are suffering with Sciatica or if you feel your leg is weaker or hurts it could be due to a “pinched nerve”.  If you want to learn more about  non-surgical treatments for herniated discs visit www.drshoshany.com