What is MUA?

MUA or manipulation under anesthesia is a noninvasive outpatient procedure offered for acute and chronic painful conditions of neck, back, sacroiliac joints, shoulder joints, and hips. MUA is a viable alternative for those patients that are not responding to traditional care or invasive procedure such as surgery. With the use of sedation, painful muscles and joints are comfortably stretched, massaged and adjusted. So how does the sedation work?

1.The medication sedates the pain producing nerves that have been chronically irritated due to restricted joints in the spine, shoulders, or sacroiliac areas.

2.Sedation allows complete muscle relaxation enabling the physician to stretch shorten muscle groups and to breakup adhesions caused by chronic pain in that area. In other words the sedation puts our muscles to sleep which allows the doctors to properly restore and actually improve movement of the affected joints.

A Safe Procedure: Manipulation Under Anesthesia has a very high safety profile. The side effects of the procedure are those of regular chiropractic manipulation. The MUA team consists of a board certified anesthesiologist, the MUA trained medical or osteopathic physician, and the MUA trained chiropractic physician. MUA is unique as it joins together multiple specialties for the therapeutic benefit of the patient. This procedure should only be performed by a physician that has been certified in the practice of MUA. MUA training is a postgraduate continuing education sponsored by many of the chiropractic colleges across the US. The course is typically 32 hours covering the history, scientific basis, and techniques of MUA.

STRETCHING WITH SEDATION?

In our opinion, MUA should be renamed as “stretching with sedation”. This procedure is 75% stretching and 25% manipulation of the joints. The results are remarkable.

1.Stretching the patient while sedated breaks up scar tissue adhesions in and around the joints. These adhesions are commonly caused by multiple injuries, car accidents, sports injuries, poor posture, or even failed back surgeries.

INDICATIONS:

Who would benefit from this procedure? Patients that have the following respond extremely well to this procedure:

Fibro adhesion buildup ( chronic muscle pain/tightness)
Chronic disc problems
Herniated discs
Chronic muscle spasms
Intractable pain from neuromusculoskeletal conditions
Sacroiiliac problems
Frozen Shoulder
Failed back surgery
Pinched Nerves Sciatica

What do all these conditions have in common? They are painful conditions of the muscles, nerves, and joints that are chronic in nature (long term, unresponsive to traditional treatments) and that have scar tissue associated with it. This is the reason why MUA can successfully treat these conditions and the others fail.

How MUA Works?

The MUA procedure uses twighlight sedation to relax restricted muscles allowing the physician to gently stretch and adjust the spine. The MUA physician is trained to recognize where and how much stretching and adjustments are needed for each patient. Following the three-day procedure, post MUA exercises begin which will help to achieve the optimal benefit.