Spinal traction is often used when there's a spinal injury or there's pain in spine or pain down the arms from or the legs from nerve injuries.

Spinal traction is that applies a long term stretch to the articular joints and soft tissues, and it's used commonly on the cervical spine and the lumbar spine and also the thoracic spine.

There are two ways that traction can be applied. First one is by a physiotherapist using their hands. So that's manual traction, and tends to be very specific, maybe a shorter duration of traction. The second way that traction be applied is through a decompression machine,

Spinal traction has several effects on the spine. It can obviously decompress the spine and the vertebral structures such as the discs and the vertebral joints, and therefore decrease irritation on the nerves by increasing the space in the spine where the nerves exit. It can also decrease muscle spasm, increase blood flow and decrease the sensitivity and pain in the spine.

When the patient receives spinal traction, there are some things that can happen after traction, such as post traction soreness, which is quite normal and but generally it should be quite comfortable.

Traction can be used over time. Usually it's over several weeks, two to three times a week, where the patient comes in and receives either by the physiotherapist or by a machine, and the results are generally progressive, and people feel better as treatment goes on.