Can massage reduce lumbar disc herniation?

After suffering from lumbar disc herniation, physical therapy is also quite effective. For example, massage can promote blood circulation, relieve pressure on the cervical spine, and also have a good effect in relieving pain. Of course, massage cannot reposition the lumbar disc herniation, it can only achieve certain relief. It is a relatively conservative method. If the condition is more serious, other methods are needed for treatment.

Can massage reduce lumbar disc herniation?

First of all, it is undeniable that massage therapy is one of the most widely used conservative treatments for intervertebral disc herniation in my country, and its effect is also very certain.

Mainly, many techniques in massage can change the relative position of lumbar disc herniation and adjacent nerve roots, so that the herniation that originally stimulated the nerve roots no longer stimulates the nerve roots, thereby alleviating or eliminating the symptoms caused by the stimulation of the nerve roots. But can massage restore the position of a herniated lumbar disc?

Doctors often hear people say that a herniated lumbar disc can be repositioned through massage. Dean Wang Changyong said that in fact this statement is very wrong. No matter how the lumbar intervertebral disc protrudes, the protruding tissue cannot return to the intervertebral space.

Traction therapy and massage therapy can reduce the intravertebral pressure and relieve the pressure of the posterior longitudinal ligament on the protrusion. At the same time, they can promote the water absorption of the protrusion, causing it to contract slightly after dehydration, thereby reducing the pressure on the nerve roots. Regardless of whether the annulus fibrosus has been ruptured or not, it is impossible to reposition a herniated lumbar disc through massage therapy.

Physical therapy alone is difficult to restore

When a lumbar disc herniates, the annulus fibrosus has been damaged to varying degrees, and the nucleus pulposus will protrude more and more severely as the degree of damage to the annulus fibrosus increases. The resulting protrusion is often composed of multiple fragments of varying sizes rather than a whole. In addition, the nucleus pulposus itself is a gelatinous substance, so it is difficult to restore it to its original position.

Does that mean that lumbar disc herniation can never be cured? Of course not! Patients with lumbar disc herniation can be treated with our department's specialty treatment - minimally invasive surgery using perforaminal endoscopic discectomy to remove the herniated nucleus pulposus combined with nerve root release, thereby relieving pressure on surrounding tissues and achieving the goal of eliminating clinical symptoms.