January 2002

Archives of PM&R to Publish 2nd CBP® Clinical Control Trial

By Deed E. Harrison, DC

     In December, we received a letter from the editor of the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (APM&R) informing us that our Clinical Control Trial on our CBP® Lumbar Extension Traction had been accepted for publication. This research paper is entitled “Changes in Sagittal Lumbar Configuration with a New Method of Extension Traction: Non-randomized Clinical Control Trial” and is authored by Deed E. Harrison, DC, Rene Cailliet, MD, Donald D. Harrison, PhD, DC, MSE, Jadeusz J.  Janik, PhD, and Burt Holland, PhD.

            Data for this research project was collected at my clinic in Elko, Nevada. We had a treatment group and a control group. For the treatment group, lateral lumbar radiographs were obtained at initial, three-month, and 1.5-year follow-up evaluations. For the control group, follow-up lateral lumbar radiographs were obtained at a mean of nine months. We reported a substantial increase in lumbar lordosis in the treatment group while the control group showed no change in radiographic measurements.

            The Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation is the most prestigious rehabilitation journal in the Index Medicus. This lumbar traction project makes a two-part series of CBP® Clinical Control Trials in press at the APM&R, since our cervical two-way traction Clinical Control Trial was recently accepted and is in press at APM&R.

            Since our cervical extension/compression traction Control Trial was published in JMPT in 1994, CBP® now has three published/accepted Clinical Control Trials.

            This should offset recent protocols of care being developed in Ontario, Canada by IMEs from CMCC  (Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College) and CCO (College of Chiropractors of Ontario), who have incorrectly labeled CBP® technique as experimental and sagittal traction as experimental.

            Also the treatment duration (36 visits in three months) to increase a percentage of lordosis in chronic low back pain subjects will support two-three programs of care (72-108 visits) to correct a lumbar spine back to our normal lordosis published in 1998 in the Journal of Orthopedic Research. This will help DCs, who recommend structural rehabilitation, substantiate long-term corrective care programs.