Spinal decompression gives neck, back pain sufferers an alternative to surgery

There was a time in Sharon Kentzel's life when the mere act of walking across a room would bring on excruciating pain.

After a bad fall in 1991 that left her with a broken ankle, a broken nose and terrible back pain, Kentzel couldn't get up from a chair and could barely walk.

"I'd be embarrassed to go to a restaurant. I'd go to pay the bill and couldn't get up," she said. "I'd get out of my car to go get gas and I'd have to wait a minute before I could walk."

The broken bones have since healed, but the nagging pain in her lumbar region remained.
Kentzel's diagnosis was a degenerative disc, and she spent years searching for something - anything - to fix it, from physical therapy to painkillers to steroid shots. "I have been seeing doctors for years; nobody could help me," she said. "All they wanted to do was give pain pills. I said, 'I don't want you to kill the pain, I want you to fix it.' "

Kentzel now does many of the things she never thought she'd do with ease again - simple things like gardening, driving, cleaning her house, lifting, bending and walking. She considers herself something of a "miracle child" and credits a technique called spinal decompression therapy.

The technique, which repairs damaged discs and reverses nerve degradation with negative pressure, has been around since the 1980s and has been gaining interest in the last few years, said Dr. Tony Fry, a chiropractor at Peoria Chiropractic in Illinois.

Fry had been treating Kentzel for four years with mixed results. He had heard of spinal decompression therapy years ago and wondered if it was worth a try. He read up on the technique, talked to other doctors around the country that were using it, received training and began offering the service last October.

"Most people I see feel they have no other option. They've tried physical therapy, injections, chiropractic. They feel they have to live with this until they have surgery, or they feel they have to live with the pain forever."

Spinal decompression treatment can help alleviate chronic low back and neck pain, herniated or bulging discs, deteriorating discs and arthritis, and has a success rate of 86 percent, Fry said, although some conditions can't be reversed.

"A deteriorating disc isn't going to go away," Fry said. "My goal is to decrease pain as much as I can."

The room that houses the Triton table has plants, dim lighting and a waterfall humming. Fry says he tries to make it a relaxing place, and apparently he has succeeded; he has had patients fall asleep during the process.

"There are three phases to the treatment," Fry said. "First, to get pain under control. Second, strengthen the area and core muscles like the stomach and back, and third, to transition into doing things on their own."

When treatment begins, patients are positioned on a table and fitted with a wrap-around harness over their hips, attached to a computer, and one over their chest, stabilizing the patient. The computer is key, as it is programmed to stretch a specific vertebra depending on the patient's problem area. The machine gently stretches and releases the vertebra continuously. The stretching opens and closes the entire area around the disc, unlike traction methods, which focus on the back side of the disc, Fry said. Treatment can last 10 to 30 minutes, and for a severe case, patients could receive treatment up to four times a week.

The decompression, or negative pressure, helps heal the disc from the inside out, Fry said.

"The pulling brings nutrients and blood supply back into the disc. It's getting the gel to go back in."

Kentzel said the process doesn't hurt. "It just feels like stretching," she said.

Kentzel said after her first treatment, she could tell a difference immediately.

"I noticed (an improvement) right away," she said. "I remember getting off the table and feeling better. But it takes a few times before you don't slip back into pain."

Bob Feger of Lewistown, Ill., has gotten relief from the treatment, too. His job as a Department of Corrections officer requires lots of walking on concrete, and he spent years searching for relief from damage in his lower back, which was also causing pain in his legs. He had been to physical therapists, chiropractors and even doctors who thought his leg pain was caused by blocked arteries. He started treatment in January, going regularly, but now he receives treatment just every two months.

"(Spinal decompression therapy) has relieved the pressure," he said.

Fry says decompression can't help every case. The treatment is not possible for someone who has had surgery where there's any kind of metal in the back. And he says he won't let a patient receive the therapy if it looks like their discs are too damaged. He'll send them to a neurosurgeon instead, if it looks like it has deteriorated to the point where surgery is the only option.