Neck decompression uses a computer-run table that eases your neck into a gentle pull, then lets it relax, cycle after cycle, while you lie face up. The aim is less pressure on the neck’s discs and nerve roots, and with it, less neck pain and less of the arm pain a pinched nerve causes.
You get this treatment only if your physician orders it, and your physician also sets how strong it is.
What is neck decompression?
Face up on the table, your head sits in a cushioned cradle. The table pulls gently on your neck, holds, and lets go, in repeated cycles.
How does it help after a crash or fall?
The gentle pull lowers pressure on the neck’s discs and nerve roots. That can quiet a sore neck and the arm symptoms that come with a pinched nerve root.
What does it feel like?
A slow, steady stretch and then a letting go, again and again. A stop switch stays in your hand the entire time. For the whole first cycle your technician remains in the room. When it ends, lie still for one minute, then sit up.
Who should not have it?
- A broken or unstable neck
- Rheumatoid arthritis in the neck
- Osteoporosis
- Cancer in the spine
- Neck movement that brings on dizziness or blurry vision
- Arm weakness that is new
Each session opens with your technician reading the safety questions aloud to you. A changed answer sends the decision to a physician before the machine is turned on. Saying stop ends the treatment, any time.
How long does it take?
15 to 20 minutes.
What to remember
- Keep a thumb on the stop switch from start to finish.
- Rest a minute before you sit up.
- Dizziness, new arm pain or tingling: press stop.
Show us you have it: Press the stop switch once for us so we know you can find it. If any part is unclear, ask us to go over it again; there is no limit on that.
Arm pain from a pinched neck nerve is called cervical radiculopathy. If your MRI report mentions it, our page on foraminal narrowing explains the wording.
Other treatments in the program
- Heat and cold therapy
- Vibration therapy
- Traction chair
- Laser therapy
- Shockwave therapy
- TENS (gentle electrical stimulation)
This page belongs to the Gateway Midwest physician-directed physiotherapy program. On Natural Bridge Road, the physician who examined you signs each order, and no treatment runs without a physician on site.
Hurt in an accident? Start here.
You do not need a lawyer, a police report or a referral to be seen. Bring your symptoms and we will work out the rest.
Monday–Friday, 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Same-day appointments are often available for new accident and injury patients.