Back Pain Health Center

VAX-D: Treating Back Pain Without Surgery

How Effective Is It? continued...

Though he claims a high success rate with VAX-D -- between 70% and 80% -- he acknowledges that not all patients achieve optimal outcomes. "Younger patients do better. Typically they're less obese, have less [spinal] degeneration going on, more abdominal strength and better flexibility," he says.

Chemaly has halted VAX-D in patients who experience pain during the procedure. "I warn them, 'If we do try this and you experience pain, we'll stop. Some clinics say, 'Let's go for it.' Pain is your body's way of saying there's something going on," he says. Most patients who experience pain with VAX-D have spinal stenosis along with herniated discs, Chemaly says.

Strategies for Success

Still interested in VAX-D? Then you may want to follow this advice from seasoned VAX-D practitioners.

Use caution when choosing where to get treatment. "Look for places that do VAX-D with physical therapy. Mills -- places that do only VAX-D -- tend to be profit motivated. And you're not going to get the proper care and evaluation in a mill," Chemaly tells WebMD.

Follow protocol for the recovery process. "If patients receive this treatment five days a week, for a month, 70% of them will be free of pain," Dyer tells WebMD. "What do they do when it's done? They go skiing. Dumb!" he says. "When the pain is gone, that doesn't mean the fracture is completely healed. Exercise does nothing for an intradisk lesion or a herniated disk. What it does is put stress on a disk that's trying to heal." Dyer tells his patients to engage only in walking during the month-long recovery process.

When it comes to treatment for something as fragile as an ailing back, it's imperative to exercise caution when choosing treatment. As for Reiner, he's convinced he's made the right choice. "I'm sure I'll have a flare-up here and there, and I'll know where to go," he says.