How Stress X-Rays Can Lead To A Brighter, Pain-Free Future

Stress x-rays are an integral part to determining and accurately diagnosing the severity and location of any spinal ligament injury. Trauma to the spinal ligaments can have a lasting, negative effect on the body and if not diagnosed and treated, can lead to chronic pain and permanent disability. Avoiding Chronic Pain Accidents can happen. Often times, when injuries occur to the lower back, neck or anywhere else connected to the spine, soft tissue damage is sustained. If left untreated, further damage can occur over time. Chronic pain which doesn’t occur from an accident can simply be the result of an urgent necessity for a lifestyle change. However, with these injuries one can be misdiagnosed or utterly missed – technologies to measure the ligament laxity or excessive joint motion associated with these injuries are not universally employed. To truly avoid chronic pain, the actual injury must be discovered and treated. Whether through rehabilitation of the ligaments, surgery or other methods, without a proper diagnosis, treatment plans are limited in effectiveness. How Stress X-Rays Are Used To Diagnose Spinal Ligament Damage Spinal stress x-rays are used to accurately allow the treating doctors to determine the severity and location of any spinal ligament injury. Spinal ligament injuries cause two findings to be visible on two different imaging modalities. The most problematic of the two is excessive joint motion, found on stress x-rays, and the other is disc injury found on MRI. Stress x-rays can be used to show vertebral excessive motion caused by the damage to the supporting spinal ligaments, which in turn can cause moderate to severe spinal instability. This spinal instability is the most common cause of many of today’s most prevalent chronic pains, such as lower back pain, neck pain, and headaches to name just a few. As in the past, the problem most doctors face today is that they have never had a way to accurately test for excessive joint motion. A procedure called CRMA® developed by Spinal Kinetics has changed this. Their Board-certified medical radiologists can now accurately measure the precise inter-segmental motion problems that occur during trauma to the spinal ligaments. This proprietary process provides unbiased measurements used to determine the exact areas of injury with great accuracy. A Future Without Chronic Pain Over 80 million people now live with chronic pain. For those suffering from it, any treatment leading to a reduction of symptoms and pain would be welcomed. To truly make a difference in the lives and health of others, we need to use fastidious technique with the goal of understanding the exact injury. Only then will we be present and implement a treatment plan that is effective and decreases pain permanently thus eliminating, at least in part, the need of unnecessary drug treatment. Healthcare in this country is a primary concern of over 30% of our population. Using the latest technology and techniques available, we can now improve the lives of millions of people and bring relief and a better way of life to those that suffer from chronic back pain.