Manipulation Under Anesthesia (MUA) Therapy
MUA uses a combination of specific short lever manipulations, passive stretches, and specific muscle, joint, and tendon movements to break up fibrous adhesions and scar tissue around joints, the spine, and surrounding tissue. MUA can be an alternative for patients facing invasive surgery.
Who is a Candidate?
Before patients can be considered candidates, they need to receive a consultation with one of our Board Certified Physicians. Some spinal syndromes respond poorly to conservative, conventional care because they do not address the underlying cause.
Whether it is a disc injury, old injury to the spine, or headaches, the chronic pain is caused by adhesions and scar tissue that have built up around the spinal joints and within the surrounding muscles.
Patient Evaluation and Screening
Patient selection is one of the most important aspects to ensure the MUA procedure will be a success. Not everyone is a candidate for this procedure. Candidates are selected for MUA after taking a thorough and adequate history, thorough examination, and appropriate diagnostic imaging and laboratory procedures necessary for an accurate diagnosis of the underlying condition. The Procedure
MUA is performed under conscious sedation with the consideration of the anesthesiologists. The patient is given anesthesia (conscious sedation) selected by the anesthesiologist that is most appropriate based on their personal medical history. Two properly trained and qualified physicians take the patient through specific and controlled passive stretching techniques. These stretches are intense and the range of motion is taken beyond the point of consciously tolerable pain.
Deep tissue pressure, traction and muscle stripping are performed. Similar in thought to spray and stretch but at a much more deep and intense level–beyond what would be possible without being sedated.
Specific joint manipulations are then performed. This helps to increase the range of motion of the restricted joints, eliminate the deposited fibrosis within the joints, and stretch the shortened connective tissue within the joint to help restore normal motion. The patient is injected with anti-inflammatory medication, is awakened from the anesthesia, and is taken to recovery and monitored. When the conservative treatment of chronic becomes intolerable, the benefit of sedation becomes obvious.
Rehabiliatative Care
Shortly after the MUA procedure, the patient usually experiences a dramatic increase in range of motion and decrease in pain. However, it is essential to complete a post-MUA rehabilitation program to ensure a permanent resolution of chronic pain.
In an effort to minimize the re-formation of adhesions, a post-operative care program is prescribed for six to eight weeks. Patients who have experienced chronic pain for years can become severely de-conditioned.
As a result, they may require an additional 6 to 8 weeks of re-conditioning, work conditioning, and strength training.
MUA Is Not a New Procedure.
It Has Been the Topic of Research Since 1948.
Since the 1930s, MUA has been changing the lives of chronic pain sufferers and improving their quality of life. Documentation regarding the success and value of MUA has been recorded in the osteopathic literature since 1948, when Clybourne reported in the Journal of American Osteopath Association a success rate of 80–90% which has been maintained to this day.
