Autotraction in lumbar disc herniation. A myelographic study before and after treatment.

Autotraction is a method of diminishing lower back pain and sciatica in which the patient stretches himself on a specially designed traction table. The pulling force ranges between 400-800 N. Clinical results are encouraging and the method can be recommended as a temporary treatment especially in lumbago with sciatica. The influence on a herniated disc is discussed with respect to the suggestion that autotraction will diminish the herniation. In this study myelographic examination revealed that herniation was the same in location and size before and after autotraction. However, there was a marked clinical improvement in all patients but one.