Air Neck Traction

Air Neck Traction For Health Care Practitioners

Neck traction, in one form or another, is a major component of conservative management for patients exhibiting soft tissue disorders related to cervical dysfunction, both degenerative and trauma induced.

The major goals of neck traction include: Relief of pain, decreased pressure on cervical nerve roots, improved soft tissue extensibility as indicated in pain free range of motion, and reduction in painful, protective muscle activity.

Neck traction may be helpful for capsulitis, cervical facet joint syndrome, and in helping to relax muscular spasms. Traction may also benefit patients with osteoarthritis by promoting increased movement of the cervical spine and decreased pressure on the facet joints. Cervical traction increases joint mobility of the cervical spine for patients with hypomobility. Degenerative disc disease often leads to radiculopathy and cervical pain. Air Neck Traction alleviates pressure on the diseased discs to promote decreased pressure on peripheral nerve roots and enhance nutrient delivery to the disc.

Traction may also be more beneficial when used with other modalities such as cold, heat, ultrasound and other appropriate modalities to reduce pain.

Neck traction has been shown to be effective to decrease symptoms with many different diagnoses, however, there are several instances where cervical traction is not appropriate and/or contraindicated.

Generally, treatments should be discontinued if symptoms increase or if pain or parasthesia is experienced after traction treatment.

To insure safe application, cervical traction should not be used within the following conditions: Unstable spine, Vertebral fractures, Extruded disc fragmentation, Ruptured cervical disc, Spinal cord compression, Acute strain or sprain, Joint hypermobility, Osteoporosis, Malignancy, Pregnancy and Infection.

Often, home neck treatment involves use of an over the door or fulcrum assisted and weighted device designed to augment the effects of improvements obtained by in the clinic manual and/or mechanical traction. Unfortunately, patients often fail to comply with these types of home traction regimens due to set up and restrictive factors.

Air Neck Traction is a manual traction device which is patient controlled via a hand operated pump bulb similar to a sphygmomanometer. It allows variability of placement of the patient in sitting, supine and ambulatory positions without tying the patient to hardware and potentialy hazardous situations. Additionally, the traction force is spread throughout the mandible and occipital areas for an even distractive force rather than placing the force directly through the mandible and temporomandibular joints. The ease of use, variable positioning and degree of traction force can induce greater specificty of home treatment recommendations and improve relaxation during application resulting in greater patient compliance.

Air Neck Traction can supply a traction force up to 176 pounds. Forces up to 50 pounds are commonly used to achieve intervertebral separation especially for those with diagnoses requiring separation of the intervertebral spaces for therapeutic effect (herniated disc, degenerative disc disease, foraminal stenosis, facet syndrome, etc...). In general, over-the-door traction at home is limited to providing less than 20 pounds of traction. The Air Neck Traction was developed to deliver cervical traction in the home comparable to forces applied in the outpatient setting, even in the sitting position where the weight of the head and muscle activity must be overcome.

Please see references for Traction

Codes and descriptions for Air Neck Traction may vary from state to state as determined by regulatory bodies. Please use your professional discretion.

As far as necessity, we do recommend you personalize the letter. Here is a guideline.

The cervical traction accessory is utilized at home as an orthopedic device to aid in restoring the normal physiological curve to the cervical spine and, through the traction effect, relieve ( _muscle tonicity _spasms _nerve impingement _disc compression _vascular compression). This device affords a wide range of traction while in the supine, sitting or ambulatory positions with therapeutic support and comfort for the cervical spine condition without applying undue force to the mandible. This device is designed to enforce the office treatment regime and assist the healing process.

Additional indications for use of the Air Neck Traction would be a complication of tmj dysfunction or fear by patient thus complicating treatment compliance with halter and weight type traction devices using the mandible to apply force, and/or a failed a trial of over-the-door cervical traction.