Ozone injection is a safe, effective, economical and analgesic treatment method with few adverse effects for the treatment of many chronic painful diseases. In 2009, the pain department of our hospital purchased a Hermann ozone machine imported from Germany and carried out ozone injection for pain treatment, treating hundreds of pain patients with an efficiency of over 90%, which is popular among pain patients.
Ozone (O3) is an isomer of oxygen, which is a molecule with a ring structure composed of three oxygen atoms. Medical ozone generator generates ozone by using medical pure oxygen through high voltage. Ozone is a light blue gas with strong special odor, extremely unstable and easily decomposed in air and human tissue. Compared with oxygen, ozone has the characteristics of high specific gravity, taste, color, soluble in water and easy to decompose, etc. The half-life is about 20 minutes at room temperature. Because the atoms are very active, ozone has strong oxidizing ability and has biological effects such as sterilization, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, analgesic and immunomodulation, and is widely used in clinical practice.
The principle of ozone treatment for lumbar disc herniation: ozone injected into the intervertebral disc can rapidly oxidize the proteoglycans in the nucleus pulposus, destroy the cell membrane and intracellular structure of the nucleus pulposus, cause cell degeneration and necrosis, decrease or lose the function of cell synthesis and secretion of proteoglycans, reduce the osmotic pressure of the nucleus pulposus thus leading to water loss and reduction of the volume of the nucleus pulposus. For this reason, the method of ozone therapy for herniated discs is also known as ozone ablation.
The picture below shows a fresh disc nucleus pulposus
The picture below shows the disc one month after ozone injection treatment
Ozone stimulates the overexpression of oxidative enzymes, neutralizes the overproduction of reactive oxidative products in the inflammatory response, antagonizes the release of immune factors in the inflammatory response, dilates blood vessels, improves reflux, and reduces edema around nerve roots, thus producing an analgesic effect. Ozone injection can act directly on nerve endpoints and stimulate inhibitory interneurons to release enkephalins and other substances, thus achieving analgesia, which is the basis for ozone treatment of soft tissue pain.
Indications for ozone treatment of chronic painful diseases.
1.Intervertebral disc herniation.
2.Lumbar spine surgery failure syndrome.
3.Soft tissue pain: such as myofascial pain syndrome, third lumbar transverse process syndrome, pear-shaped muscle syndrome, tenosynovitis, tennis elbow, etc.
4.Arthralgia: such as frozen shoulder, knee arthritis, sacroiliac arthritis, hip arthritis, etc.
5, neuropathic pain: such as postherpetic neuralgia, diabetic neuralgia.
6, ischemic pain: such as vasculitis, cerebral ischemia, ischemic necrosis of the femoral head.
7, immune pain: such as rheumatoid, gout, ankylosing spondylitis.
8, cancer pain.
Contraindications to ozone treatment of chronic painful diseases.
1.Ozone allergy.
2.Puncture site infection.
3.Elevated body temperature.
4.Severe psychological disorders.
5.Patients during menstruation and lactation.
6.Cervical disc herniation compressing the spinal cord causing spinal edema degeneration.
7, free type lumbar disc herniation.
8, lumbar disc herniation calcification, combined with bony spinal stenosis or cauda equina syndrome.
Possible adverse reactions of ozone treatment for chronic painful diseases: allergic reaction, nerve damage, infection, bleeding, headache, abdominal distension, dural sac injury, limb weakness and muscular atrophy, etc.