Accu-SPINA & IDD Therapy? Anyone tried this?

[JJames]

It's been quite a long time since I've visited here. Unfortunately, it is not because I am any better. I suppose I've simply started losing hope for any positive outcome.

I was given a pamphlet today regarding "IDD Therapy" using a "device" (table) called Accu-SPINA. Has anyone heard of or tried this therapy? The doctor who originally provided this document promised that it would make me 70%-80% better and I could get off all my pain meds finally!

I have certainly learned to be extremely skeptical of these types of claims, but can find nothing but advertisements and positive testimonials on the Internet. I'm currently seeing a holistic/chiropractic doc 3 times/week at $50 a visit since early January plus $180 worth of dietary supplements, so I am REALLY getting desperate! Not to mention - broke!!!

Thank you for any information or thoughts .....

[longroadahead]

This sounds a lot like the DRX9000 machines (spinal decompression) where the machine gently pulls/relaxes the spine hoping to put fluids back in the disc.

I tried one treatment but the cost was so high that I didn't pursue.

[CharlesinCharge]

This is just like the DRX 9000, which has been shown in many reports to be a scam. The company that makes the DRX 9000 was investigated and prosecuted by the government for making false advertising claims and fraud! From what I read this machine is no different, and note that it (and the DRX 9000) are ONLY used by Chiropractors. You will never see an M.D. or Spine Surgeon recommending or using one of these traction machines.

I would not waste my money on this. Looking at your profile and the fact that you have had a discogram that confirms DDD at two levels, your only long-term solution seems to be surgery (and I am sure Dr. Yue has told you that). I'm guessing your insurance won't pay for ADR and you cannot afford it yourself so you are looking for other fixes, but in my opinion this is not a fix.

You could look at Biacuplasty, which is the latest minimally invasive treatment for DDD. It is not covered by most insurance plans, but only costs about $3,000 to $5,000 (far less than ADR surgery), has been FDA tested and evaluated, is performed by an M.D. in a hospital setting, and has had some good results. Google it and see what you think.

[Harrison]

J, sorry you are back in this situation, but we are here for you. There's some good information in the replies for you to consider.

For what it's worth, IMHO, biacuplasty is a newer generation of IDET and the results are not stellar. For this and other reasons, most insurance companies will not reimburse for this procedure. Sue (ERvet) could write a book about this!

Traction -- spinal decompression -- gave me many months of relief (2003-2004) that I needed to "buy time" for my artificial disc replacement surgery. To Charles' point, if your discs are diseased and dessicated, the effects of any type of traction (inversion table, DRX, traction in physical therapy) may be quite temporary, so a different solution may be needed.

We've discussed this quite a few times and this topic covers a lot of bases:

Has anyone tried Spinal Decompression?

Hope this helps in some way.

[CharlesinCharge]

To be fair Harrison, you cannot compare IDET to Biacuplasty. IDET was indeed a failure ultimately, as it "cooked" the disc with heat in an effort to seal the fissures and cracks. It has a few successes at first, but several more studies showed it only worked in very very limited cases.

Biacuplasty uses a COMPLETELY different technology, as they use Radio Frequency (the same technology used to burn nerves in the Facet joints and other spine areas) which destroy the painful nerve endings in a diseased disc. The positive results have been as high as 45% according to the FDA reports I read (research it for yourself), and my Pain Management doctor told me he has done it on a number of his patients with very good results. They had to pay for it themselves, but it greatly reduced their pain and does not preclude having ADR down the road (much like using Fibrin Sealant).

It is true that insurance will usually not pay for it, but how many insurance companies will pay for ADR, even after all these years??? My insurance company (Blue Cross) will still not pay for ADR, evey the discs that are FDA approved in the U.S. So, that fact proves NOTHING about Biacuplasty.

I have always respected your opinions, but to call Biacuplasty "a newer IDET" without all the facts is simply not fair. It does not even use heat at all on the discs, but Radio Frequency as I said, which is a totally different technology and has proven effective in destroying nerve endings in many other parts of the body.

Respectfully,

[annapurna]

Radio frequencies are used in the body to induce a localized heating effect. I've done absolutely no looking to compare biacuplasty to IDET but point out that one used heat and the other used radio frequency, which then translates to heat, isn't a particularly strong argument to separate them.

How else is Biacuplasty different from IDET?

[JJames]

Thank you all for your input and opinions! I failed to find any useful information on this so-called therapy anywhere else. This site is great!!! Where else can you post a question such as this in a forum, and get responses in only a day?!?!

I'll certainly be staying away from spinal decompression! I was reminded later yesterday by my wife that I had been advised many years ago by an orthopedic doctor I was seeing at the time to NEVER do this.

I will do some research on the biacuplasty, but feel I will likely discover it isn't a viable solution for my condition(s), and if it is I'm sure that my medical insurance will throw up the wall once more.

Just tired of trying to survive each day instead of actually living. It's been so long now that I'm not sure what "living" is even like!!

Thank you all once again.

[Harrison]

Charles, it’s the same idea that uses a different heating method – that’s why the insertion needles (RF electrodes) can literally (accidentally) burn the insertion point with energy. And you’re right; it is a newer generation of treating the spinal disc and hopefully superior than earlier generations of similar designs. But what I’ve heard from both patients and doctors are lackluster results.

The clinical trial is still open, so patients may not have to pay for treatment. Here’s a bit more information for anyone that’s interested.

TRIAL OF DISC BIACUPLASTY TO TREAT CHRONIC DISCOGENIC LOW BACK PAIN
http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00749554

PATIENT SELECTION FOR DISC BIACUPLASTY
http://www.transdiscal.com/PatientIndications.html

DISC BIACUPLASTY
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_biacuplasty

Excerpted from Peer Reviews by Leading Specialists:

Heating of the disc using various energy sources may decrease or eliminate discogenic pain. Until now, those techniques failed to demonstrate obvious tissue changes in the disc that could explain their therapeutic action. Still, suspected mechanisms are denervation (elimination of the pain receptors) of the tissue and alteration of the collagen fibers in the disc. Major advantages of such minimally invasive therapies are relative simplicity, low cost, and fewer side effects when compared to surgical procedures such as lumbar fusion or disc replacement. Disc heating modalities are also generally more acceptable by the patients. Minimally invasive approaches using heat to treat discogenic pain include IDET (Smith and Nephews, London, England), discTRODE? (Radionics Inc., Burlington, MA), and intradiscal biacuplasty (Baylis Medical Inc., Montreal, Canada).

When those methods of heating a specific part of the disc were compared, there were modest improvements in pain scores and functional capacity of the patients with discogenic pain after treatment with novel annular probe termed discTRODE? (Kapural et al., 2006). Compared to IDET, it is less effective in both improvement in functional capacity and the pain scores when strict patient selection criteria are used.

The latest minimally invasive method to heat the disc using bipolar radiofrequency electrodes is named intradiscal biacuplasty. It may be the most promising of all minimally invasive disc heating methods based on the improvement in pain scores and functional capacity (Kapural et al., 2008). Radiofrequency current is concentrated between the electrodes positioned on the ends of two straight probes. The electrodes are internally cooled, allowing deep, even heating over the larger area of the disc. Currently, the Cleveland Clinic (Cleveland, OH) is conducting a prospective sham study [where some patients think they are getting the full treatment but are actually getting a placebo] on intradiscal biacuplasty.

[CharlesinCharge]

Harrison,

OK, I guess that Radio Frequency does generate a type of heat, I just meant to say that it does not DIRECTLY heat up the disc the way that IDET did. IDET literally put a metal wire into the disc and then heated it up---Radio Frequency may create some heat when destroying nerve endings, but it is not anywhere near the same as a hot metal wire!! Also note that the study you quote does say it is the "most promising" minimally invasive method yet.

None of that changes the fact that ADR is clearly the best way to go---once a disc has become diseased beyond a certain point, it cannot be repaired using any of the available technologies today. Even my Pain Management doctor admitted that Biacuplasty was not a long-term solution and would not repair discs with DDD, but he said it could greatly reduce the pain and "buy" the patient time until they could get the money for ADR surgery (or win an insurance appeal) or even until newer technologies (like stem cells) are developed.

If I could not afford ADR and was suffering in terrible pain every day, I would consider something like Biacuplasty or Fibrin Sealant injections to give me some relief until I could find a long-term solution. That is what I was trying to suggest with my post, not that Biacuplasty (or any other minimally invasive procedure) was better than or a replacement for ADR surgery.

[annapurna]

Short-term treatments like biacuplasty and IDET are tools to put in the box so long as everyone understands that they buy time but don't fix anything. If you expect a major change in your situation, better insurance, doc willing to put you in a trial that's starting soon, etc. they're a good option to look at. Laura tried IDET (no success) way back in the beginning of all this because the Charite trial here in the US was between phases and she was planning on buying time to be included in the next phase of the trial.

On a side note, even though Laura and I are probably thought of as the "pro-Germany" crowd, our decisions were really based on necessity. Laura's IDET failed to buy her any time and she needed intervention at a time when no US surgeon had a Charite trial slot for her, prior to the FDA approval. She was in the same position for her 1st cervical ADR, no US doc doing them when she needed it.

To bring it back to the original question, the Accu-spine, IDD, biacuplasty and all these short-term treatments also demand that the person trying them to buy time also have a plan for what they'd do if they fail to buy that time. We were essentially sent out of the country to get immediate relief when her "buy time" IDET failed. We had the plan in place but I would have hated to be in the position we were in if we hadn't pre-planned a what-if scenario.