An Alternative to Back Surgery

Saturday, May 8, 2004 | 0

An Alternative to Back Surgery by Lynn Hartzell

Below you will find a letter to Newsweek's Editor in follow up to a story printed recently in that magazine, "The Great Back Pain Debate." The letter is from the Manufacturer of Vax-D. Vax-D has become a mainstream non-surgical treatment protocol in the private pay market and I believe that an evaluation by Medically Directed Vax-D Clinics is the logical second opinion in any surgical recommendations for herniated discs, degenerative disc disease, sciatica facet arthropathies, and can provide injured workers with a safe alternative to invasive procedures for the relief of back pain that is the residual of a work injury.

Christine Baker, Executive Director of CHSWC recently hired the Rand Organization to analyze medical treatment protocols on behalf of the State of California for efficacy, safety and cost savings. Ms Baker was to meet with Rand last week and ask them to include this FDA Approved technology in their analysis.

A study conducted by Sinclair Oil in Oklahoma last year demonstrated that realistic savings between $16-23 million dollars are possible for every 100 patients treated with Vax-D vs. lumbar surgery. Timely, value added medical treatment can save our State budget billions of dollars. Safe and efficacious, this technology can keep a patient on the job when used as the mainstream treatment protocol in properly selected patients.

www.vaxd.com offers a clear understanding of the physiological healing tens of thousands of patients have received over the past 15 years. 3000 patients treated daily nationwide have found their way to Vax-D and a conservative 70% never need surgical intervention. Many clinics in California achieved 93% success rates. 100% money back guarantees are now being offered by many clinics to prove the wisdom of Vax-D.

Both pre-surgical and post-surgical success is possible. Patients with 2 laminectomies and a revision have consistently reduced the 7-9 pain levels to 0-3 in 6-12 weeks. Workers are rehabilitated and return to work. Many patients with 6 mm disc bulges never miss a day of work.

Letter to Newsweek

April 22, 2004

Editor and Chief
Newsweek Magazine
251 West 57th St.
New York, NY 10019-1894
CC: Claudia Kalb, Karen Springen, Anne Underwood, Mary Carmichael and Ellise Pierce

Dear Sir or Madam:

"The Great Back Pain Debate", while well written and thorough in accurately depicting the state of Back Pain in America today, failed to mention a treatment modality that is in use by physicians in over 200 clinics in the U.S and around the world: Vertebral Axial Decompression or "VAX-D" for short. VAX-D therapy is a patented process that distracts the lower lumbar vertebrae without contracting the para-vertebral muscles that lie on either side of the spine, thereby allowing the lower lumbar vertebrae to be distracted or "stretched out" (in laymens terms), and creating "negative intradiscal pressure."

Each of us, every day, lives with positive intradiscal pressures on our vertebral discs, ranging from 75 mm/hg (millimeters of mercury) while we are sleeping, to over 250 mm/hg during compressive activities at work or play such as raising boxes overhead, picking up a child, or weightlifting at the gym. VAX-D is the only clinically proven process by which negative intradiscal pressure can be created, thereby causing a rapid diffusion of nutrients and fluids across the vertebral endplate into the nucleus pulposus, the visco-elastic portion of the disc that so frequently "dehydrates like grapes that turn into raisins" as Dr. Dick DiNubile so aptly put it. VAX-D treatment promotes rehydration of the lower lumbar discs, thereby reducing the pressure on the spinal nerves from disc degeneration. Essentially, VAX-D allows the back to heal itself and the results last for years.

Numerous clinical studies (see next page) have been published on the remarkable patient outcomes and cost savings to society that VAX-D provides and currently, over 3000 people per day undergo VAX-D therapy. As proven in the outcome studies, over 70% of these patients consistently experience significant low back and sciatic pain reduction. Numerous pre and post MRI images of VAX-D patients actually bear witness to retraction of their disc herniation.

Some of the foremost neurosurgeons and interventional pain doctors in the country have adopted VAX-D into their practices as the best weapon available to alleviate chronic back pain and I urge you to study VAX-D further at www.vaxd.com and learn how this effective, life-changing therapy has helped tens of thousands to heal.

Sincerely,

Dean McMichael
VAX-D Medical Technologies, LLC
310 Mears Blvd.
Oldsmar, FL 34677

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Lynn Hartzell, a Vax-D representative, can be reached at lynn@workcompcentral.com or call at 310-259-2090

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The views and opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of workcompcentral.com, its editors or management.