(energetic jazz music)
- Hello. I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- I'm Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
And today we're gonna talk about cervical traction.
And now we have a portable unit, it fits
in this container right here.
Works very well, and we're gonna go through
in detail how it works and why it works.
- Let's stop right there, though, Brad.
Cervical means neck, neck traction, solid.
- Right. As a matter of fact, why don't you,
throw me the spine there.
- (jokingly) Let's see what kind of hands Brad has.
- (quietly) She didn't, wasn't supposed to throw me the...
- Oh.
- Okay. So we're looking at the spine.
The cervical part of the spine is nothing
more than the neck. So we're looking at the vertebra
from the head. We're going down seven vertebra
and right there...
- The head would be right here.
- Exactly. Pelvis. Back. And he's looking at Bob.
(laughs)
- That's right.
- One thing I do wanna point out,
while we got the spine here, is with cervical traction,
traction means nothing more than to -
you think of pulling something apart,
we're actually gonna put force right
on the bone here, on your neck, on the back of your head
I should say, and we're gonna pull upwards gently.
And if you look, can you zoom in here, Lindsey?
And I want you to zoom in real close,
right to this nerve right here.
One of the spinal nerves that come out from the lower neck,
this nerve goes out into the shoulder and down into the arm,
But if you see - and you got a good zoom in there
where my finger is - if that nerve were to get pinched,
like my finger's pinching on it, cervical traction,
one of the benefits that it can do is actually pull
up and release the pressure on the nerve, okay?
Allowing the nerve to that have circulation and
relieve the symptoms. Okay, so that's one
of the things that cervical traction can do to
relieve symptoms.
- And what might pinch the nerve, Brad?
One would be the disc itself could push out or herniate out.
And we actually have a herniated disc here.
(to the camera operator) Can you see that?
Can you see that red bulge there? Okay.
The other thing is over time you can have arthritis
be formed and it actually can create
a smaller hole where the nerve comes out.
And that can cause a little bit of
stress on the nerve itself, too.
- Right. So we'll get on, and I'll let you
understand the basics of it. We'll get on with
the use of the product itself.
- Okay. Let's get onto the, the traction unit itself.
This is a Saunders traction unit.
Saunders makes a number of medical devices, lumbar traction,
cervical traction, and number of other things.
But it's a really nice unit.
It's well built, and I just really enjoy using it
because it's built so well. And it works effectively.
It's got a wonderful carrying case, so it is portable.
You can take it with you to a hotel room,
to your cousin's house, you know, even to a Packer game.
(laughs) Just kidding on that part. Anyways...
- [Bob] This should be hung by the way.
(Brad chuckles)
- You take it from there and that needs
to just be set aside.
And it's best to do this actually on a floor,
you could do it on a bed if it's flat and it's a firm bed,
but typically a carpeted floor works the best.
So you take the unit out and set it here.
And Bob, you want come in and...
- [Bob] Sure.
- ...work as a demonstration model?
- I've never done this before.
- I know it. I know it.
- So this is...
- Lay down. Yep. Super. Fine.
- That's it, on your back.
- Should we do it with my tie on?
- Yeah, it doesn't matter what the person's wearing.
Okay. Now I need you to scooch down that way a little bit.
- This one?
- Yes. Okay.
Okay. Now actually, why don't you sit up Bob?
'Cause I wanna show the people some details of this unit.
- Alright.
- (to camera operator) Zoom right in here, Lindsey, please.
(Velcro strap is opened)
Now you can see Bob was laying
down the back of his head is here.
This actually goes around the forehead.
But one thing you need to understand is
these knobs right here.
When you turn 'em one direction, these pads move inwards.
And when you go the other direction,
they move out. Simply adjust so it fits on your skull,
the occipital bones, properly and comfortably.
Okay, go ahead.
Alright. So there you go right below the ear,
right on the bones right below the ear.
- Like this. There you go.
- And the person on there will know.
It feels comfortable in the right spot.
Now, do you feel them getting tighter, Bob?
- Yes, I do.
- Okay. Is it too tight?
- No.
- Should I keep going?
- I'm not sure. How tight do you want 'em to be?
- Well, it should be comfortable.
This is something that's...
- It's starting to get a little tighter.
- Okay, good. Then we're gonna go out.
- I'd say yeah.
- Right there? Okay. Now that's gonna vary
from person to person. Once you get the traction on
they'll know and next time you can adjust it.
They'll say, "it was a little too tight,"
Then you release the pressure next time.
Then this is nothing more than a Velcro strap on both sides.
(strap is pulled apart)
You can loose it up. Simply goes right over the forehead
and gently strap it down. It's not one
of those things you wanna put a lot of pressure on.
Okay? Now this is pneumatically controlled or with air.
Okay, air cylinder. And on here - can you zoom in
on this Lindsey?
There's a gauge that shows you how much pressure
so you can do this scientifically.
Each time you do it you can put the exact
amount of pressure on, so you're consistent
with the actual pounds of pressure of traction.
(to camera operator) And are you in here? Okay.
If you look here, I don't know if you'll be able to read it,
but there's a little sign that says release,
and then it says pump, and over here is for hold.
So you put it on pump and you'll start pumping
to advance the traction.
When you get it to where you want it to hold,
you simply go over to hold and it locks it in place.
When you want to release the traction, you always release,
you can hear the air come out,
and the person will feel the traction come right off.
Okay? Alrighty, Bob.
Now I will explain this to the patient.
As a matter of fact, I just worked this early this week
and he's gonna take this unit home tomorrow,
and he does this himself.
I always have the person do it
after I give them a complete explanation.
Alright, go ahead, Bob.
- Okay. What am I doing?
- Alright. So again, put it on pump.
I just want you to hold here and here, watch the gauge.
And when you feel some pressure on your neck,
I want you to hold it. This should not be painful.
If this is painful, we stop immediately.
And it's not the thing to use whatsoever.
It should feel like comfortable pressure
a little bit of a stretch.
And oftentimes you'll get relief immediately
into the shoulder, and the arm if we have that nerve pinch.
Now, how many pounds are you up to?
- I'm up to 20.
- Okay. I would hold right about there.
20 pounds is probably a good place to hold.
Do you think you could go more and be comfortable?
- I think I could.
- Okay. You may need to go more
but I think for now we're gonna hold it.
I usually start at a comfortable level,
and go for about five minutes and see what the response is.
Okay. Now everything feels comfortable, Bob?
- Yes, it does
- Good. Now if you, I had a patient, once you took this
we put a pillow underneath here.
That is not the thing to do with it.
This must be on the flat surface that your back is on.
Okay. We're just gonna speed up time here.
(makes time machine noises)
Five minutes is gone. Okay. Can you release that?
- How do I release it?
- Okay, just look here.
- Oh, yeah, it says release.
- (teasingly) You need some new glasses, Bob?
- Okay. Then you just turn it?
- Rotate that to release.
- Oh, yeah.
- You hear the air, come out, feel pressure?
And you could probably see that go down.
Now this is a great unit, just is engineered excellently.
It's a wonderful one tool to issue.
You feel great about the product,
and they gonna pump it up again?
- Pump up again, yeah.
- Okay, so five minutes at 20 pounds.
Positive response, it felt good, but we wanna
see if we can get a little more relief from the symptoms.
(Bub mumbles while pumping)
And I believe it goes up to what, 40 or 50 pounds on there?
- Yeah. It starts to get harder now.
- No, I don't mean go up there. Where does it...
- No, I know, but I'm just saying I'm at 25. It goes to 50.
- (teasingly) And sometimes I'll get patients like this:
they don't really communicate well with you, but it's okay.
(laughs)
Alright. So where are you at?
- Neat device. I'm at 20, 22, 22.5.
- Okay. The exact pound is not really critical.
As long as you know, we're in the ballpark, 22, 23.
What will happen is the device can slide
on the material of your back.
And it'll actually spread out very little bit.
And after a couple minutes, you might realize, Bob, that
that 22.5 is going down to a 21 and it could even go
down to a 20. It's simply because it's slipping
on the material or on your shirt or on the floor.
So you give it a little pump to get it back
up to that desired amount.
And you can go up to 15 minutes
on this with positive results.
I never do that on the first day.
The first day, I'll go up to 10 minutes maximum,
take it off, let the person go home
and see how the response is over the next 24 hours.
If the response is positive,
they don't get any unusual soreness,
then the next day we can go up maybe a little more
on the traction and bring the time up to 15 minutes.
However, if someone comes back the next day and they say,
"oh my neck was sore, and maybe it was a little too much,"
then you back off on it. Go less time, and less
pounds on the traction.
- Brad, why don't you explain
what the mechanism is for getting one of these?
- Yeah, that's a good point.
This is something you're not gonna look
up online and get a cervical traction unit,
and you shouldn't. You should, you know
you're gonna get this from your doctor.
A therapist is being gonna be the one who's typically
gonna instruct you in the proper use of it
and everything we're going over.
So this is just a preview of what you would get when
you go see a therapist to actually have this issued to you.
There's one more thing I want to show on this, is
what really makes the Saunders unit nice.
Can you take the pressure off Bob?
- Sure.
- Sometimes the degree that the head is at, now
he's at a 15 degree angle here
'cause that's what this unit is designed for,
sometimes you benefit more from a higher angle:
you get more relief of symptoms.
So with this unit, there's two buttons here.
We go up until the first click
that brings you up to 20 degrees.
Now on the last patient I had last week,
we started at 15 felt okay, went to 20.
It felt a little bit better,
but then we went up to 25 degrees,
which is as high as this unit goes.
And this clicks in there, right there,
and at 25 degrees patient said, "ah
that's a little uncomfortable," so we brought it back down,
and we actually used it at 20 degrees.
Heard it click in there.
- I wanna try 20.
- Are you sure?
- It actually feels more uncomfortable to me at 20.
I mean, I don't have a problem, but it just feels...
- (teasingly) You don't have a problem?
- I don't have a problem with, by neck, but...
(Brad laughs)
- Right, your neck, just clarifying that.
- But it does feel more comfortable.
- Yeah. This is a great unit,
the patient I'm gonna give it to tomorrow,
he's gonna take it home, he's gonna trial it for week.
So uses it every day, and if he's happy with it,
then he is gonna purchase it.
Oftentimes insurance companies will pay for this.
Medicare will pay for this if it's successful,
and other insurance companies will, as well.
And if it's not successful, then of course
it's not gonna be paid for, but that's why you do some trial
business with it first, so
- Can I have a price check in aisle 14?
(laughs)
- And you can play with it too while you're there.
But yeah, wonderful unit.
If you have any questions on it,
refer to your therapist or physician.