• Harrison DE
• Paulk GP

• Chiropractic / methods
• Clinical Biomechanics of Posture
• Intervertebral Disc Displacement / rehabilitation

CLINICAL FEATURES: A 23-year-old woman suffered from chronic unremitting symptoms of lower back pain and left-leg pain. She was treated five years prior, without relief. Diagnosis at that time was low-back pain and lumbar subluxation. Approximately 3 years later, she was evaluated by an orthopedic surgeon. Magnetic resonance imaging showed a moderate posterior disk protrusion at L5-S1 with degeneration.

INTERVENTION AND OUTCOME: Chiropractic treatment of this patient consisted of mirror-image chiropractic adjustments, 3-point bending lumbar extension traction, and postural exercises. The patient responded well with a complete resolution of her symptoms and a restoration of her lumbar lordosis.

CONCLUSION: This article suggests that successful management of chronic low-back pain symptoms may require a close analysis of a patient's postural deviations and sagittal plane curves. This study suggests that it is possible to restore lumbar lordosis in some cases and this may have an unforeseen benefit to the patient. Further study is warranted into the treatment of chronic low-back pain with chiropractic biophysics methods.

Click on the above link for the PubMed record for this article; full text by subscription. The abstract is reproduced here with the permission of the publisher.