Clinical Support for Spinal Unloading
Trekke Lumbar Lift is an ambulatory, spinal unloading orthotic device designed for the treatment and relief of low back pain. It intervenes in the daily degenerative compression cycle of lumbar discs, reduces or relieves low back pain, and allows the user a near normal daily routine.
Trekke’s unique modality for the treatment of low back pain and it’s unique, patented construction allow the flexibility and range of motion needed to give muscles the opportunity to exercise and rejuvenate in a pain free environment.
A recent study of Trekke Lumbar Lift by world-renowned Cleveland Clinic showed unloading of the lumbar region of the spinal column in patients wearing the Trekke device with other positive outcomes such as improved lordosis, accompanying reduction in back pain and increased mobility.
Their study concluded that, “The Trekke Lumbar Lift does have the potential to provide relief from lower back pain, especially in patients with severe lordosis and lower [lumbar] back pain” and that “the increase in [lumbar] height [while wearing Trekke] was statistically significant”. – Cleveland Clinic Study, 2009
The study showed that participants on average had an 18.6% reduction in low back pain while wearing the Trekke Lumbar Lift, with one experiencing a 52% reduction of pain. And, two weeks after wearing Trekke patients continued to enjoy an average 23.6% increase in mobility.
Two weeks after the clinical study patients stopped using Trekke they continued to maintain an average 23.6% increase in mobility.
Cleveland Clinic Study, 2009
What the Research Says
The scope of the back pain problem exceeds $100 billion annually and annual incidence is approximately 15-20% of the US population.24, 25, 26 At any given time, about 1% of the US population is chronically disabled due to back problems and another 1% is temporarily disabled.27 Recurrence of low back pain is very high, affecting 40% of patients within six months.28, 29, 30, 31
85% of low back pain is un-diagnosable which means it cannot be treated by surgery or other direct means. Low back pain is generally a result of mechanical dysfunction of the musculoskeletal and ligamentous structures causing pain in the lumbar region. The problem generally results from weight/time compression of discs, nerves and facet joints. It has historically been treated with bed-rest, medication, traction/manipulation or some combination thereof with a mean cost per episode of $8,321 (in 1989, about $2,500 medical and $5,821 indemnity).
According to recent clinical studies, spinal unloading or decompression of the spine offers relief.32
With the lack of understanding as to the patient’s true pain generator in most cases, makes it difficult to recommend a specific, effective treatment for each patient. The traditional approach to management of chronic back pain has generally been passive modalities (medications, massage, ice/heat, etc.), physical therapy, and surgery for those with specific, potentially correctable anatomic and mechanical abnormalities. Most of the modalities have been disappointing since it is very difficult to match the right patient with the right set of treatments in their individual circumstance.
And, none of the current treatment devices are general enough to treat the wide variety of diagnoses and non-specific pain generators present in the average clinician’s patient population.
Safe and controlled spinal unloading performed on a daily basis has proven to be a very effective means of treating patients with herniated discs. Spinal unloading can serve as effective therapy, but it is also an important means of maintaining good spine health and preventing future disability in those identified as having genomic problems.33
Disc disease, the most common cause of back pain, which costs the American health care system more than $50 billion annually, can be cost-effectively treated using spinal unloading.34 With the recent advances in biotechnology, spinal unloading, that is, unloading due to distraction and positioning of the intervertebral discs and facet joints of the lumbar spine, has been proven an effective non-surgical treatment for herniated and degenerative disc disease, by producing and sustaining negative intradiscal pressure in the disc space. In agreement with Nachemon’s findings and Yong-Hing and Kirkaldy-Willis, spinal unloading treatment for low back pain intervenes in the natural history of spinal degeneration.35, 36, 37, 38
The degenerative disc may benefit by lowering intradiscal pressure, affecting the nutritional state of the nucleus pulposus.39 This clinical outcomes study, which was performed to evaluate the effect of spinal unloading on symptoms of patients with herniated and degenerative disc disease, showed that 86% of the 219 patients who completed therapy reported immediate resolution of symptoms and 84% of those remained pain-free 90 days post-treatment. Physical examination findings revealed improvement in 92% of the 219 patients who completed the therapy.40
The rapidly rising cost of low back pain is driving a search to find more time and cost sensitive treatments for the disease. A growing body of literature is pointing to an early return to normalcy as that most time and cost sensitive approach. This new treatment philosophy talks about an early return to work and little to no bed-rest as the most efficient way to reduce the pain and associated cost of low back pain.
The unresolved issue in this new treatment modality has been addressing the compression cycle the spine has to deal with on a daily basis, from the time we rise to the time we lay back down. Until 1998, there was no method that allowed low back pain patients mobility and spinal decompression simultaneously.
Recent advances in spinal unloading, such as Trekke Lumbar Lift, now offer a cost effective non-invasive treatment for causes of low back pain, such as herniated and degenerated spinal disc disease, while allowing the patient full mobility and so a quick return to normalcy.
