Relief for Lower Back Pain

By Ambrose Hutson - 2007-11-14 - Viewed 1091 times. Find more articles like this in our Pain and Pain Management category.

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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.

The occurrence of chronic lower back pain often begins after a spinal injury such as a strained muscle, sprained ligament or herniated disc. Once the initial damage has been repaired, one would expect the pain to vanish as well. However, health experts have found that such episodes can sometimes trigger an alteration in the nerve cells that transmit signals. The resulting hypersensitivity persists, even after the initial trauma has been healed.

When this occurs, the chronic lower back pain becomes another disease, and much more than a simple symptom of underlying spinal damage. Hypersensitivity can continue to create recurring bouts of pain, even when there has been no havoc to factor the twinge. Therefore, people who have suffered lower back trauma should be careful to maintain an ongoing rehabilitation program in hopes of avoiding any future painful episodes.

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.

This new procedure for relieving chronic lower back pain has recently received an FDA clearance. It is a minimally invasive procedure that is performed in a regular medical clinic.

If you're interested in percutaneous nueromodulation therapy, you must meet a certain set of criteria:

* Are you at risk of developing long-term, intractable pain?

* Existing pain should radiate from the lower back into your buttocks, legs and feet.

* Are you free of ample pain-relieving medications (including physical therapy or chiropractic manipulation)?

* Would you like a less insidious approach before resorting into a surgical operation?

A doctor performing PNT will utilize several needle electrodes. These electrodes are designed to reach nerve pathways that may be impacting the pain. Specialists believe that this kind of charged stimulation can help to restrain the central nervous system that is relentlessly ushering in the pain.

A typical PNT session lasts for about thirty minutes. Once the patient has become comfortable in a face down position on the examination table, up to ten PNT electrodes are applied to the lower buttock area at specified locations. Each is deployed with a fine-gauge filament electrode to a depth of three centimeters. With the electrodes in place, the doctor is able to adjust the stimulation to a stage that will distribute the most therapeutic benefits to the patient.

If you undergo PNT as a treatment for lower back pain, you must complete three or four sessions before evaluating the effectiveness of the procedure. While some patients experience a certain level of relief after a single PNT session, others require subsequent sessions. No two patients are the same, and the suitable frequency of PNT can vary.

Following the application PNT treatment, some patients report overall feeling of wellness, including increased physical activity, a better quality of sleep, improved pain control, reduced levels of disability and a lessened need for pain medications.

If you suffer with lower back pain, you don't have to be a slave to the condition. Effective treatment options are available, including PNT sessions, which can provide the relief you need to get back on your feet.

Columnist Ambrose Hutson is an essayist for a variety of web sites, on healthy family and home health care topics.

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