Many patients with low back pain and other spinal related disorders benefits from the skilled application of spinal manipulative procedures, especially in the early stages of pathology, the phase of dysfunction. Joint dysfunction is a departure from normal and ideal joint movement thus causing pain, muscle splinting and increased joint wear and tear. Spinal manipulation corrects this mechanical dysfunction and renormalizes joint mobility.
What is Spinal Manipulation?
Spinal manipulation is defined as a skilled, passive manual therapeutic maneuver during which a synovial joint is carried beyond the normal physiological range of motion without exceeding the boundaries of anatomical integrity. The manipulation is carried by way of a brief, shallow, sudden and carefully administered thrust directed to a dysfunctional spinal segment at the limit of the paraphysiological zone of joint motion. The procedure is usually accompanied by a cracking sound that is termed the Cavitation Phenomenon. This is a distractive maneuver on a spinal segment liberating a gas bubble that is 80% CO2.
The evidence supporting spinal manipulation
Spinal manipulation as a treatment for spinal pain has a long tradition dating back to antiquity. The strongest support for the inclusion of spinal manipulation in the first-line approach to the treatment of back pain is shown in the recent clinical guidelines established in North America and in Europe.
Over the years, spinal manipulation has been subjected to considerable scrutiny of its clinical effectiveness and cost effectiveness as a treatment for spine pain, to the point that spinal manipulation is now the most studied intervention for this condition. All this study has led to the conclusion that spinal manipulation is an effective and safe treatment for spine pain of mechanical origin.
Therapeutic effects
The therapeutic effect of spinal manipulation are explained in terms of mechanical (physical) and neurophysiological (reflex) mechanisms. Basically, the physical effects of manipulation involve:
- Joint cavitation (crack sound) stems from within the joint and does not correlate with the effectiveness of the treatment.
- Increase in active and passive ranges of motion
- Breaking of interarticular adhesions
- Joint and muscular mechanoreceptor stimulation.
The neurophysiological reflex effects include:
- Inhibition of pain by afferent impulses to the central nervous system
- Relaxation of muscle by inhibiting motor neurons
- Stimulation of the autonomic nervous system
How to find a skilled practitioner of Chiropractic
Most of the spinal manipulative therapy in North America is delivered by chiropractors. Spinal manipulation is the treatment that most people associate with chiropractors. Chiropractors, in their undergraduate training, concentrate on spinal manipulation and develop a degree of expertise that is only learned to a limited degree at the post-graduate level by other health care providers.
The Spine Align System
The Spine Align System is a sophisticated FDA approved mechanical percussive manipulation device, which has both an analytical and a therapeutic application. In other words, the instrument helps the doctor assess the spine as well treat the patient in a precise, effective and gentle manner.
From a therapeutic perspective, this technology is very comfortable, as it offers a less forceful treatment without application of manual rotation or thrusting forces to the joints, when compared with standard chiropractic manipulations.
With this technology, musculoskeletal conditions can be managed by increasing range of motion, eliminating fixations and improving functional capacity of patients through specific manipulative techniques assisted by the instrument in a precise and reproducible manner.
Neurologically, the Spine Align Instrument takes advantage of the interplay of the type 1, 2, and 3 mechanoreceptors with the type 4 nociceptors creating an inhibition of pain, increasing neuroactivity and restoring normal nervous system tone.
The Spine Align Instrument offers a particularly interesting alternative to standard chiropractic procedures to patients of all ages, who might either be apprehensive of manipulations, those presenting acute injuries or suffering from conditions with contra-indications to spinal manipulations.