MT Core spinal decompression in Tunbridge Wells

It’s a form of mechanical traction: a controlled, computer-guided pulling force applied to part of the spine while you lie on a specialised table. The aim is to change the load on the spine for a short period, which some people find eases pain and makes movement more comfortable.

Your spine is made of vertebrae separated by intervertebral discs, which absorb load and allow movement. Age-related changes, injury or a disc herniation can sometimes irritate a nearby nerve root. In the lower back, that can cause pain, tingling or numbness travelling into the buttock and leg, usually called sciatica.

Not every disc bulge causes symptoms, and not all back pain comes from a disc. That’s why we assess you before recommending any treatment.

Non-surgical decompression is different from surgical decompression, which is an operation to relieve pressure on a nerve. Nothing is removed and there’s no incision.

Whether decompression is appropriate depends on your diagnosis, your symptoms and what we find on examination. We commonly assess people with:

• Lumbar disc bulge or herniation: low back pain, sometimes with leg pain, tingling or numbness. Many disc herniations improve with time and the right conservative care.
• Sciatica: pain travelling down the leg from an irritated nerve root. A disc is one cause; narrowing of the spinal canal (stenosis) and other conditions can feel similar, and they’re managed differently.
• Persistent low back pain: usually driven by more than one factor, so a plan built around exercise and getting back to normal activity matters more than any single machine.
• Neck pain and arm pain: cervical disc changes can irritate nerves to the shoulder, arm and hand. Because the neck also protects the spinal cord, we’re particularly careful here.

This is a fair question, and the honest answer is that the evidence is mixed.

Older traction research. A Cochrane review of 32 randomised trials with 2,762 participants looked at traditional traction methods across many different devices. It found they probably make little or no difference to pain or function for most people with low back pain, with or without sciatica ^[1].

Newer, device-based research. Some modern decompression tables work differently from the older traction methods in those trials. A 2022 randomised trial at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital compared 10 sessions of non-surgical decompression (on a Spine MTK-1 table, an earlier model from Shinhwa Medical, the Korean company that makes the MT Core) with a sham version of the same treatment in 60 adults with subacute lumbar disc herniation ^[2]. The decompression group had:

• less leg pain at two months
• better function scores at two and three months
• a greater reduction in the size of the herniation on MRI

No treatment-related adverse events were reported.

It’s an encouraging result, but it has limits:

• it was a single, small study of people aged 18–60
• more people dropped out of the sham group, which can skew the results
• it used an earlier table from the same manufacturer, not the MT Core itself

So it doesn’t prove that MT Core treatment works for everyone with back pain.

Neck-related arm pain. A 2018 meta-analysis of five trials found some support for adding traction to physiotherapy for cervical radiculopathy (arm pain from a trapped nerve in the neck). It showed short- to medium-term pain reduction and smaller effects on function ^[3].

What this means for you: decompression may help some people, particularly as part of a wider plan, but it isn’t a proven cure. A shrinking disc on a scan doesn’t always mean less pain. We’ll be cautious with anyone who promises that decompression will reverse disc degeneration, permanently “reposition” a disc, or definitely prevent surgery, and we won’t make those claims ourselves.

Call 999 or go to A&E straight away if you have back pain with any of these:

• new difficulty passing urine, or loss of bladder or bowel control
• numbness around your genitals or back passage (“saddle” area)
• rapidly worsening weakness in your legs

These can be signs of cauda equina syndrome, a spinal emergency.

For neck problems, seek urgent medical advice if you develop new clumsiness of the hands, problems with balance or walking, or worsening weakness in your arms or legs.