Traction Flashcards
What is traction?
a mechanical force applied to the body in a way that separates the joint surfaces and elongates surrounding soft tissue
Who is the “father” of traction?
James Cyriax
6 Types of Lumbar Traction
- Mechanical
- Positional
- Auto-traction
- Manual
- Inversion
- Gravity
3 Types of Cervical Traction
- Mechanical
- Manual
- Take home units (over the door/wall mounted)
Mechanical traction can be describe as either _____ or _____.
static or intermittent
5 things spinal traction can do
- Distract joint surfaces
- Reduce protrusions of nuclear disc material
- Stretch soft tissue
- Relax muscles
- Mobilize joints
Spinal traction pulls longitudinally on the spine which will result in what 3 things?
- Reducing pressure on the discs and facet joints
- Enlarging the intervertebral foramina
- Stretching the ligaments, tendons, and muscles
Define joint distraction
The separation of two articular surfaces perpendicular to the plane of the articulation
__% body weight can increase the length of the lumbar spine
25%
__% body weight is necessary to distract the lumbar facet joints
50%
_% body weight is necessary to distract the cervical facet joints
7
Cyriax beleived that traction is the treatment of choice for what?
small nuclear protrusions
Disc protrusion symptoms are not improved under what 3 circumstances?
- There is a large HNP
- Calcification of the disc protrusion is present
- If the forces are too low
2 ways spinal traction can cause an improvement is symptoms
It can reduce pressure on pain-sensitive structures, or it can gate pain transmission by mechanoreceptor stimulation
Describe how intermittent traction gates pain
It interrupts the pain-spasm-pain cycle and stimulates the GTOs to inhibit alpha motor neuron firing
Describe how static traction gates pain
It depresses the monosynaptic response caused by static stretch
