Clinical noteUse of Partial Body-Weight Support for Aggressive Return to Running After Lumbar Disk Herniation: A Case Report
Section snippets
Case Description
The subject of this report was a 52-year-old physical medicine and rehabilitation physician and ultramarathon runner (M.D.H.). He had been a competitive ultramarathon runner for 12 years. At the time of his injury on January 31, 2009, he was in good health and was running 110km to 130km per week and cycling 40km to 80km per week. He had no history of prior back injury or symptoms.
The injury occurred while the subject was snowmobiling. While attempting to dislodge a snowmobile from deep snow, he
Discussion
Back pain has become one of the most common medical problems in developed countries, affecting up to 8 out of 10 people at some point during their lives.7 Lumbar disk displacements are a major causal factor of acute low back pain and present with symptoms of pain, sensory disturbances, and weakness of the lower extremities. These symptoms can be severely disabling and impair performance of normal daily activities. Weight-bearing high-impact exercise such as running is often intolerable because
Conclusions
To our knowledge, this is the first clinical report on the recently developed AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill. While the potential use of the system for various lower-extremity disabilities is apparent, this case demonstrates a particularly novel application, because the pathology was above the level of support.
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Cited by (0)
We certify that we have a financial involvement with an entity with a financial interest in, or financial conflict with, the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. Hoffman has received grant support from AlterG, Inc., the manufacturer of the partial body-weight support system used in this report.