Manipulation Under Anesthesia (MUA)
What is MUA?
Manipulation under Anesthesia is a powerful pain management treatment for chronic pain that facilitates deep stretching and spinal manipulation by your doctor that would normally be too painful to perform. It is such an effective pain therapy that, normally, only three 10 minute sessions are needed to effect profound pain relief. The best part is that much of the time your health insurance will cover the procedure. Manipulation under Anesthesia, also commonly called MUS, Manipulation under Sedation, is a pain reduction or pain elimination therapy which is great for treating both chronic pain and acute conditions that cause neck, back and joint pain, fibrous adhesions and scar tissue around the joints and spine, muscle spasms and shortened muscles. This pain management therapy is performed only by licensed physicians trained specifically in the MUA procedure and overseen by hospital staff, the anesthesiologist and nurse aids.
Benefits of MUA
- Relieves pain from damaged spinal disks
- Stretches persistent shortened muscles, ligaments and fascia
- Relaxes you for more effective treatment of painful injured areas
- Decreases muscle spasms that cause chronic pain
- Most importantly, MUA breaks up scar tissue and adhesions surrounding spinal joints caused by injuries or previous back surgeries and allows freedom of movement and greater range of motion.
The Importance of Sedation
Pain control is the obvious reason for sedation because pain causes muscle resistance on the part of the patient. However, sedation is also important for completely relaxing the muscles to allow elongation of shortened muscle groups and breaking up of the fibrous scar tissue and adhesions around joints.Who is a Candidate for MUA?
Many people do not have long-lasting results from traditional pain management therapies if the scar tissue and adhesions are not addressed. Deep tissue massage, physical therapy, chiropractic and even surgery may not result in pain control nor create lasting pain reduction until these are eliminated. If you have already had six to eight weeks of pain therapy treatment with little or no improvement or pain relief, please consider MUA before surgery. You deserve to investigate non-invasive options for your pain control before making permanent, irreparable changes to your body.Call today to set up a consultation to determine if MUA is the right choice for you.