Efficacy of tractions of the lumbar column on a herniated lumbar disk

摘要

In 147 patients with a herniated lumbar disk diagnosed by CT and/or MRI, pain reduction and the duration thereof (in hours) using the visual analog scale ( VAS) were examined according to Krauss under intermittent motorized traction and manual traction in a suspension bath and compared to the exercise in a bath and no traction. We found the most significant pain reduction resulted from intermittent motorized traction with 48.9 VAS and manual traction in a suspension bath with 47.3 VAS. However, results from exercise in a bath were only 38.5 VAS. We found the longest pain reduction resulted from intermittent motorized traction, with 5.5 h. Regarding the pseudo-radicular syndrome (RS), the best results with respect to the duration of single and multiradicular RS pain reduction were achieved by intermittent motorized traction in pseudo-RS with 7.3 h and manual traction in multiradicular RS with 5.4 h.