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Has anyone had pain relief from a Tens unit for lumbar spondylothesis?
Spine Health | Last Active: Aug 28 12:54pm | Replies (7)Comment receiving replies
@kmmw
My understanding is TENS is not a cure and does not address the underlying structural issues associated with spondylolisthesis. The effectiveness can vary widely where some may find significant relief and others may not experience much benefit. I have had surgery on my lumbar spine due to severe spinal stenosis, degenerative disc disease, neurogenic claudication and spondylolisthesis L4 slipping over L5) which caused pain, weakness, and numbness from low back, hips, buttocks, legs down to feet. I never did try a TENS unit before surgery and not sure it would have helped much since my L4-L5 was totally blocked/compressed and damaging nerves/blood vessels and affecting movement (bone on bone). TENS would only block some pain signals but not address the damage happening in my lumbar spine.
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I had a triple laminectomy with spinal fusion on March 7th and I have whole body pain. I bought a TENS unit from Amazon 7 years ago for some relief but have started using it daily on knees, shoulders and neck with great success. I use it every day on one shoulder and knee and I am careful when using it on my neck more than a couple times a week as I have almost identical spine issues as you describe. I cannot reach my lower back so using ice and heat but it's taken over a month of daily use to finally see results and I increase the intensity slowly. I set it for 30 minutes per site treatment with a kneading effect or shiatsu setting. My TENS unit has 8 settings with 4 different versions (total of 24) and I have experimented. My pain is less in my shoulder than when I started, still working up to more time on the knee but I have no choice as pain meds don't work for me