25 Oct, 2008
Lower Back Pain: New Treatment
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If you suffer with nagging lower back pain you may lose valuable hours at work, lie awake through sleepless nights or even struggle with disability. Four out of every five adults in America will experience lower back pain at some point in their lives. If you haven’t already struggled with lower back pain, chances are, you will.
Chronic lower back pain often begins as the result of a back injury such as a strained muscle, sprained ligament or herniated disc. One would expect that the pain vanishes when the initial damage has been repaired. Surprisingly, health experts have found that such injuries can sometimes trigger an alteration in nerve cells that transmit signals. The resulting pain or hypersensitivity persists long after the initial trauma has been healed.
When hypersensitivity occurs, the chronic lower back pain transforms into a disease that becomes far more than a simple symptom of past spinal damage. The trauma has long passed, but the pain of hypersensitivity persists. To avoid future painful episodes, it’s crucial for people who have suffered lower back trauma to maintain an ongoing rehabilitation program.
An effective, non-surgical treatment method that can bring relief to those suffering with lower back pain is PNT, or percutaneous neuromodulation therapy. PNT brings relief by applying electrical stimulation to deep tissues within the posterior portion of the body.
The PNT procedure for relieving chronic lower back pain has recently received an FDA clearance. You can have this minimally-invasive procedure in a regular medical clinic.
To qualify for percutaneous nueromodulation therapy, you must:
* You must be at risk of suffering from long-term, intractable pain.
* Do you suffer with an ache that radiates from your lower back into your buttocks, legs and feet?
* You should not be taking ample pain-relief medications, including physical therapy or chiropractic manipulation.
* Desire a less insidious approach before resorting into a surgical operation.
When a doctor performs PNT, he or she will utilize several needle electrodes that are designed to reach the nerve pathways that may be impacting the pain. Specialists believe that this kind of charged stimulation helps to restrain the central nervous system that relentlessly ushers in pain.
Typical PNT sessions last about thirty minutes. With the patient is comfortable in a face down position on the examination table, up to ten PNT electrodes are applied to specific locations on the lower buttock area. Each is deployed with a fine-gauge filament to a depth of three centimeters. With the electrodes in place, the doctor can adjust the stimulation to a rate that distributes the greatest therapeutic benefits to the patient.
Patients who undergo PNT treatment for lower back pain must complete three or four sessions before evaluating the effectiveness of the procedure. Some patients report experiencing a certain level of relief after a single PNT session, while others require subsequent sessions. The most suitable frequency of PNT treatment for lower back pain will vary with each individual.
Following your percutaneous nueromodulation therapy, you may find improvements such as increased physical activity, reduced need for pain medication, better quality of sleep, more pain control and lower levels of disability.
Just because you suffer from lower back pain, doesn’t mean that you have to be a slave to the condition. There are effective treatment options, including PNT sessions, which can provide the relief you need to get back on your feet.