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Manipulation Under Anesthesia Manipulation under Anesthesia (MUA) is a highly effective treatment for chronic and acute spinal, joint, and muscular pain syndromes. Proven Effective for: Muscle Spasm Sprain/Strain Myositis Fibromyalgia Scar Tissue Bursitis Headaches TMJ disorders Frozen Shoulder Syndromes Sciatica Disc Bulge Disc Herniation Nerve Syndromes Nerve Entrapment Neuritis Failed Surgeries or injections Decreased Range of Motion Long term muscle and joint pain or inflammation Conditions that don’t respond to rehab therapy or pain killers Neck, mid back, and low back pain resulting from spinal dysfunction and injury Certain spinal conditions respond poorly to regular medical, chiropractic, and physical therapy care. The problem can be due to adhesions (rough patches, irritated areas in the muscles) and scar tissue build-up around the spinal joints and within the supportive muscles which will cause pain. Many treatments do not address theses adhesions and therefore your pain remains unchanged. Some patients will get limited relief from other forms of conservative care -including massage and acupuncture, but soon find themselves in a reoccurring pain pattern and sometimes even disability. When your symptoms haven't improved or are still lingering with traditional treatment, MUA may be an appropriate alternative. This specific treatment has been performed successfully since before the early 1950’s and is not an invasive surgery…although it is performed in a surgery center with the help of an intravenous (IV) anesthesia. During the procedure the patient is "asleep" so that deep tissue/spinal work can restore normal joint range of motion and increase flexibility of tight muscles without pain. The procedure is applied under anesthesia due to the sensitivity of the musculature and other connective tissues surrounding the injured or painful area. It is similar to the theory of anesthetic being applied for a patient receiving stitches, it blocks the painful stimulus of a needle and allows patient comfort. In addition, the anesthetic shuts off the muscle spasm cycle to allow spinal movement and complete muscle relaxation in the treatment area. This permits the doctor to stretch shortened muscle groups and release adhesions caused by injuries/scar tissue. It also sedates the additional pain perceiving nerves that have been irritated in the surrounding joint regions due to compensations. The doctor can then restore normal function to the treated area without the patient having to tolerate radicular pain from connective tissues in the surrounding areas. These particular MUA procedures consist of stretching and adjusting the affected muscles, spinal joints, or extremities to remove fibrotic adhesions (rough patches between the muscle layers) which will restore range of motion, improve overall flexibility, relieve/eliminate pain, and ultimately improve activities of daily living while decreasing disabilities. The protocol is applied over a 20 minute time period and is generally repeated over 2, 3, or occasionally 4 days consecutively. This allows the doctor to obtain deeper connective tissue release and additional ranges of motion each day. The patient will then follow up care with 6-8 weeks of rehabilitation. There are several supporting studies including one by Bradford and Siehl which stated 71% of 723 MUA patients had good results (interpreted as a return to normal activity relatively symptom free) and 25.3% had fair results (which allowed then to return to normal activities with slight residuals). Another study by Paul Kuo, MD professor of Orthopedic Surgery which demonstrated that 83% of 517 patients treated with MUA responded well; Donald Siehl’s study of reported 96.3% of patients diagnosed with myofibrositis had excellent to good results. Another study by Ongly documented patients with a minimum of 10 years chronic back pain reported 87% recovery after MUA. According to Merrill Mensor 64% of patients diagnosed with herniated discs reported good to excellent results. Additional information is available, please call the office at 903-597-9021.
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