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onservative treatment of low back pain and herniated disc is based on the administration of different drugs, although in recent years, new therapies such as ozone therapy have been offered.

Description of the procedure

The ozone therapy technique in the treatment of lumbar pain and herniated disc consists of the administration of a mixture of oxygen (O2) and ozone (O3) that is injected into the paravertebral muscles or directly into the disc, using as a guide, in the latter case, computed tomography (CT).

What is the origin of pain?

This technique is based on the hypothesis that the origin of the pain could be due to biochemical mechanisms of acidic nerve poisoning that could be to some extent independent of the mechanical problem and due to an autoimmune reaction, producing a chronic inflammation response and creating an acid environment or a situation of ischemia.

Regarding the herniated disc, the origin of the pain would be related to two main components: mechanical compression along with radicular inflammation.

So, when this substance is injected into the paravertebral musculature, it could stimulate the production of antioxidant enzymes, thus neutralizing the toxic products responsible for inflammation of the nerve. In addition, the analgesic action of ozone could decrease the muscular defense contracture that is reflexively activated to protect the area around the herniated disc or other painful processes of the lower back.
These findings suggest that ozone in contact with the disc causes degeneration of the extracellular matrix that leads to a reduction and decompression of nearby nerve roots. Therefore, you may think that injected into the disk accelerates the degradation of polysaccharides in the nucleus pulposus with which decreases the volume of the herniated material causing nerve compression. This could result, along with better blood circulation (oxygenation of the nerve roots), the decrease in lactic acid and inflammatory cytokines into a reduction in back pain and sciatica.