Treatments
1. Percutaneous Disk Decompression
Objective: Disk decompression and pain relief without surgical intervention. Symptoms: Pain in lower back or leg, possibly radiating into either or both leg(s) and foot/feet. You might be feeling numb. Indicated For: Small bulging, herniated, or abnormal lumbar disks. Not Indicated For: Large herniated disks may not respond well to this treatment.
Required Evaluation: Complete history and physical examination, plus cervical or lumbosacral spine MRI (almost always). If your pain is in your lower back without obvious radiation into your legs, we might need to take a discography or inject contrast dye into one+ of your disks.
Treatment Procedure: We numb the skin, then place a needle into the herniated disk (guided by contrast dye and a realtime X-ray). We then place a wand through the needle, and generate radio waves that dissolve excess disk tissue, reducing disk size and thus relieving pressure both in the disk and on adjacent nerves. This is an outpatient procedure.
Time to Relief: Pain relief should be obvious within several days. Pain Associated with Treatment: Minimal. Recovery Time: Minimal. Rate of Complications: Low.
Technologies: This treatment uses a coblation technology, leveraging radiofrequency energy to ablate tissue inside the disk. This decompresses the disk and thermally alters the tissue to reduce the extent of your disk protrusion and also desensitize the disk itself.
DeKompressor technology removes tissue using a rotary action, thereby reducing the herniated disk. This creates a space or vacuum effect within the disk, pulling the herniation or bulge backward. Hydrocision uses a probe placed through a needle which generates a high pressure water stream; effectively eating the internal disk material which is then removed through a separate port in the probe. The herniated disk is then decompressed.