They are claiming a great success rate, but when I check the folks offering it there always seems to be a chiropractor involved. :eek:
What’s the SD?
Here’s some info about one of the traction devices.
Here’s something funny: one company selling a traction table charges its potential buyers $300 to find out how to code insurance billing. I suspect the answer they get is that they can’t.
When I suffered from a severely bulging disc in my lower back, my HMO sent me to a physical therapist that subjected me to many sessions on one of those decompression machines. It did nothing to help. Neither did the accupuncturist they sent me to (of course, the accupuncturist would probably argue that I was too skeptical of the procedure for it to have worked on me). Only large doses of ibuprofen and vicodin helped dull the pain; unfortunately this also made me a rather ineffective teacher, husband and father. I eventually demanded to see a surgeon, who said that I should have seen him from day one. I had surgery and was instantly relieved of pain and have been pain-free since. This was my own experience, maybe someone who had a less-severe case than my own would have benefitted. But the traction device seemed to be the default primary “conservative care” route used by the HMO in all cases of lower back pain, regardless of the likelihood of success. Because of their penny-pinching I suffered 9 months longer than I should have.