The Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Service at the West Palm Beach VA Medical Center has always had great pride in providing our veterans with the latest rehabilitation technology available in the field. In March of 2008, we acquired the Powered Spinal Mobilization Instrument. We are the first VA Medical Center in the nation to have this device and are one of six clinics located in the United States that are using the Powered Spinal Mobilization Instrument. The device has been used in Europe for the past five years and received approval for use in the United States by the FDA in late 2005.
Both our veteran patients and staff have been raving about the results they have experienced from using this device. We have had outstanding results with the reduction of pain for our chronic pain patients where all other traditional modalities have fallen short.
Recently, one of our young Iraq veterans reported feeling “almost normal again” after being treated two times a week for 4 weeks with the Powered Spinal Mobilization Instrument. He reported he had been treated by various chronic pain clinics, received chiropractic care, medications and even had acupuncture over the course of two years and that nothing seemed to help until he had received Powered Spinal Mobilization treatments. We also had a patient who requested that he be discontinued from the rest of his scheduled appointments because he was seeing no results for his chronic low back pain from the exercise and conventional physical modalities such as heat and neuro-muscular stimulation he was receiving. The therapist then suggested he try Powered Spinal Mobilization and after one treatment the veteran reported that he had not felt this good in years and that his pain level went from a 7 to 4 out of 10.
Douglas Tuttle uses the Powered Spinal Mobilization Instrument on a patient.
We have had many other similar results for chronic pain as well as improvement of gait and balance. This device treats the entire spine from the sacrum to the cervical region. It increases the range of motion, mobility and function. Once the spine alignment has improved, it is generally followed by improvements in gait and balance.
The Powered Spinal Mobilization Instrument is the only technology that mirrors the manual spinal mobilization techniques that physical therapists, physicians and chiropractors perform. The instrument consists of a practitioner controlled handset with moving pads that make contact with the patient and operate in three distinct modes. The pads gently move in and out in an alternating fashion so that while one diagonal pair is raised, the other is lowered and vice versa. Built-in safety features prevent the pads from overexerting pressure. The treating therapist controls the handset, “walking” it up and down the spine. This elicits gentle spinal mobilization or rotational movement of the pair of vertebrae being treated.
During treatment, the device is cycled through three modes and glided up and down the spine, mobilizing vertebral articulations in cervical, thoracic, lumbar and sacral segments. Importantly, the handset will not force a vertebra to move by any predetermined amount as the amount of applied pressure is limited by safety features of the device. If resistance is met, treatment pressure is reduced automatically. Finally, the condition of the joint determines the response to the applied effort. At first, the joint may be stiffened or fixed; as treatments progresses, mobility is gradually restored.
Not only does the instrument provide great outcomes, it also saves wear and tear on our staff who until now have had to physically perform mobilization techniques on the patient which does require a significant amount of energy exertion on their part. Additionally, it allows us to perform spinal mobilization at consistent intensities and significantly reduces treatment time and visits.
