- Hi, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- And together we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- Oh, in our opinion, of course.
- A little bit surprised too there, Brad,
weren't you?
That we started.
Okay, today we're gonna talk about the
Saunders lumbar traction.
We actually did this video once before
but what happened, Brad?
- Well, we've got incredible, intelligent,
and alert audience out there,
because they noticed that I had,
I was laying on it in the opposite direction
of what the instructions say to do.
So we're gonna go through it,
put it on the way the instructions do it,
and then tell why I did it that way.
- Right, sounds good.
- Okay.
- You're gonna go grab the unit, Brad.
And what's nice about this unit,
it's got little rollers on it.
- Yeah, it's portable,
and you can roll it like this.
- Don't know if you can see that or not, but.
- There we go.
There's the wheels, you can actually take 'em on
and off, they velcro on and you can tuck 'em
in pockets inside if you do not need them.
It does weigh 22 pounds,
from what I've read.
And I-
- Don't think you could do it as a carry-on though, Brad.
- Yeah, probably not.
All right.
So, let's go to work with it.
- Do you wanna cut away, Brad?
Or do you wanna?
- Well, no.
Let's open it up, Bob.
- Okay.
- This won't take but a second.
Lot of velcro, here, zippers.
Typically you're gonna do this on a plinth that's firm.
A table like this, in other words.
- Can you do it on the floor, Brad?
- Carpeted floor works good.
You could do it on a bed, but it, I prefer not.
- I don't think you should do it on a bed.
- Okay.
So here we've got the pump.
Let's say, new pneumatic pump for the traction part.
And, we'll get this plastic outta way.
And I'm gonna lay in here
and show you how to buckle this up.
So, let's cut right now.
- All right, we're back.
Brad?
- Okay.
So, you'll get on the Saunders traction unit like this.
With the plastic hard part here, your legs is gonna be
on that end of it.
You'll be laying here, get a pillow.
You don't have to have a fancy pillow like this, any pillow
for your head support, I recommend.
And here's the two straps.
Here's one and the other, the lower one is gonna go
around your pelvis.
The seam right between them is about at your belt line.
So you're gonna get a hold of the pelvis bone
and you can do this by yourself.
It's not too bad.
It is easier if someone else helps.
When I do it with a patient, I show 'em how to do this.
And if they're candidate to take it home
I have them do it independently.
And I observe 'em to make sure they do it properly
and they feel comfortable with it.
- So, you click, and then you just pull
to adjust the strap, make it tighter.
- They're very adjustable.
And this, you just go until you feel nice,
strong fit around the pelvis.
- So this is the pelvic strap.
- Okay.
- Do that one first.
- I don't think it matters
which one you do first,
as long as you have them in the right place.
Now this one, I go by the rib cage.
You're gonna go just below the rib cage.
- His rib cage is right here.
- Yep.
- Right there, okay.
And yeah, the strap is just going right below it.
- Yep.
So it's gonna, kind of, support on the lower edge
of the ribcage and that's, we're gonna grab onto your trunk.
And once again, boy, these work nice.
These are nice straps.
You click and assemble it.
Oops.
- By the way, the instruction book,
as Brad is doing that comes in,
with instructions in 13 different languages.
So-
- Yeah, this is a worldwide product.
- It's only got three pages of instructions, you said.
So it's a pretty simple product.
You know, you open it up, like Brad said
the plastic side is where the legs go.
You do the pelvic strap, which goes
around the pelvis itself.
And then the, the other strap goes a little bit
below the ribcage and the lower edge of it.
Strap it in, tighten it up,
and now you have this pump.
- Right.
So, on the pump, you got hydraulic cylinders
and that hydraulic, they're air cylinders in here.
And then one little control one, here.
And can you zoom in right here, Lonnie?
I want 'em to see where this device separates
creating the traction of your-
- [Bob] I would, maybe, even come up Lonnie.
- Yeah, come on up.
- [Bob] Come on up.
I can even help you
- Now, Bob.
Well, we'll show this, but then we're gonna go
on Leopold over there and show what lumbar traction is.
- [Bob] So we'll show, show right here is where
the separation occurs.
Right, Brad?
- Yep.
- [Bob] I'm assuming.
So, there's three settings on this pump.
You said, Brad, right?
- Right.
There's one for pumping, and that's what I have it on now.
And I'm gonna go up to about 30 pounds.
- [Bob] So it just twists, right?
- Right.
So, well just hold on, Bob.
I'll show.
- [Bob] You'll show that afterwards?
- Yeah.
- [Bob] Well, yeah.
Now you can see it is how, how well that is separating.
- Now, right now it's slipping a little bit up here
'cause my clothing is allowing it to slip.
So, I'm just gonna tighten this up a little bit.
'Cause it's one of those things you'll know.
You will feel that's better.
- [Bob] Yeah, if it's pulling off,
it's not doing the job, it's supposed to hold, right?
- Yeah.
Say if I'm gonna go to 40 pounds, there.
Okay, and I can feel the traction there, feels good.
This always should feel good.
If this creates pain or creates symptoms down your leg,
you stop doing it.
- [Bob] Exactly.
- It should be a comfortable feeling.
You're gonna hold it.
I like to hold it initially, if it feels good,
like right now I'd go for five minutes,
if it was a new patient.
- [Bob] For the first time, five minutes.
- Right.
If it feels good, if the leg symptoms go away with it,
I'm smiling.
'Cause I know things are going right, okay?
But after five minutes, then we're gonna take this-
- [Bob] And so, you're gonna go up to 40 pounds, Brad?
Or is that gonna vary?
- It depends on the individual.
If it's small petite person, it may only be 20 or 30.
Larger persons, likely to have more.
- [Bob] Okay.
- Symptoms are gonna guide it.
You know, you're not gonna go up to 150 right away.
Usually I, the people I've worked with 40 to 60 pounds,
sometimes more.
It's on the feedback of the person.
- [Bob] Right.
And, and as Brad said, I
I know we keep hammering this home though.
It's very simple, what you're looking for.
You're looking for the symptoms to go out
of the legs, or out of the butt,
or even to get maybe a little more narrow in the back.
- Right.
- [Bob] I mean, if, if you don't have it going into legs
you just want the back pain to be lessening.
- Right.
And right now, I feel good.
I mean, I wouldn't mind laying here
for another 10 or 15 minutes.
We're not gonna do that.
There's a mechanism here where you go to hold.
Once you find your proper traction pressure.
When you wanna release it,
there's where I can pump more if I wanted to.
Then one more, there.
- [Bob] Now, I can hear the air coming out.
- Yep.
- [Bob] It's either Brad's head or it's the traction unit.
- Coming out of my ears.
There we go.
- [Bob] So, very simple device.
Very, very neat.
- Couple of modifications, Bob.
Why don't you get that pillow for my legs?
- [Bob] Sure.
- If you get a, put pillows or something
under your legs, this can be very helpful.
It makes a lot of people,
If you put that under there, I'm feeling right now.
It's like, oh, that, that feels good.
- [Bob] That makes a lot of difference.
- I'm ready to go back to it, yeah.
There's options with this.
You can lay on your stomach and try it.
Like I did it before,
I had the head on this way and the legs down this way.
Mechanically is doing a very similar job
to the lumbar spine.
As a therapist, I felt comfortable going that direction.
People caught me.
It's not the way directions do it.
I'll still do it that way, if I get better results
than this way, for whatever reason.
If it's the anatomical shape of the body,
the person I'm working with, whatever.
You're typically gonna do this with a therapist
versus you're not gonna go out and buy one.
As a matter of fact, this not this particular track device
but the, the cost of you are about $650.
- [Bob] $650.
- Online, that's through 3B Scientific,
you can get 'em through other places.
You're normally gonna need a doctor's prescription
to order one.
Or, the healthcare provider will have one on stock.
- [Bob] And you, we're even gonna provide the
insurance billing code, Brad.
- You bet.
- [Bob] It's E1399
- Okay.
Now, I thought what we would do, Bob.
And the other thing is when you get off of this-
- [Bob] So you released it already?
- Yep.
I, can you hold that, Bob?
- [Bob] Yep.
- We're gonna take this off.
- [Bob] He put the knob to, I dunno
if you actually see this Lonnie, can you see this,
right here?
Can you see that?
Can you see the, the letters?
So release, there's pump, release, and here's hold.
You can catch all those or not.
Not too good?
- Little blurry.
- [Bob] But anyway,
those are the letters right there.
- Yeah, okay.
Important point when you get off of it, don't just get off
in big hurry.
Let the spine take the decompression off.
It's gonna change the discs.
If you've got a herniated disc.
- [Bob] I'd roll to your side.
- Yeah.
Yeah, if you got symptoms or concerns at all,
let's take this off, first.
- [Bob] Yeah.
- We'll do it.
Technically, you're gonna roll here
and you're gonna get up slowly
and monitor how things are going.
If you were having leg pain,
and the traction took care of it.
Got rid of it.
Abolished the leg pain.
You're gonna monitor it, is it coming back?
If it feels good, you're gonna stand up.
Okay.
And then see how you feel.
Don't just get up and move around quickly.
After you do this a couple times, you'll know
what's going on.
Your therapist will help you.
- [Bob] Just to reemphasize Brad,
'cause I know we're gonna get questions on this.
So the first time, probably five minutes.
- Yep.
- If you're a bigger person, maybe 40 to 60 pounds.
- Right.
- What, after that?
How, how long can people go?
- I don't like to go over 20 minutes.
- Okay.
- And they have to have good results.
And I build up to that five minutes
and the next time they come in
to visit, I'll go 10 or 15 and again, with feedback.
And if they got up feeling good,
and they came in the next time and they're saying,
"Geez I'm feeling much better.
The leg is better,"
this and that.
Then, I'll progress.
- How about the high end for pounds?
How high have you seen?
- I've never gone over 60 to 70 pounds.
- Okay.
- It does go up to 200 pounds.
- Okay.
- I'm not gonna, yeah.
- A really big person.
- That for the therapist, the doctor to determine.
Here, let's just do a quick look
at Leopold.
If someone's wondering what lumbar traction means.
- Okay.
- Here is the lumbar spine, okay?
So, below the rib cage and above the pelvis
there's five vertebra.
Occasionally, there's six.
And typically the herniation, you can see here,
this is a model of a herniated disc.
- You can't even see that, can you?
- Well.
- I don't know if they could see that.
- Yeah, so if you look at this, I know Leopold
was laying there.
Grab his leg, Bob.
There you go.
- He's the wrong way, now.
- That's alright.
We'll pretend he's going that way.
- Okay.
- Just grab, just we'll do it in the air.
We're gonna do some, if Bob were to pull
on his legs and I were to pull here, we're giving traction.
We're pulling it apart.
Just like the device does.
- Right.
- Thank you, Leopold, you did a good job.
- Oh, he lost his leg.
In theory, by the way, it's supposed to provide
a centripetal force,
which actually helps pull the disc in.
- Centripetal.
Not centrifugal,
but centripetal.
- Mark my words.
But, the other thing it does.
It does work
for people who have pretty severe arthritis, too.
Cause it pulls the facets apart.
Even though it's just temporary.
I had a person that bought one
of these and he just had a terrible back.
Really, not a disc herniation.
Just a really messed up back as far as arthritis.
And he would just go on it at night for relief.
- Sure.
- You know, I mean, just
from a whole day of putting weight on there, he'd
he'd go on it for like 20 minutes and it, you know,
he could function the next day after that.
- Sure, yeah.
Well it's, it's a fine device
and I'm gonna give it thumbs up.
- Oh, yeah.
It's a great device.
It's a great traction.
- Wait, so does Leopold.
- And toe up.
- Oh, toe up.
Actually, that's a haiku.