Dr. Warren J. Bleiweiss Blogs

Determining if Oxygen Ozone Injection Therapy is Right for You

A lady doctor holding patients hand in his hands
In order to determine if a patient will benefit from oxygen-ozone injection therapy, I look at a number of factors. The history is extremely important. That is one of the most important aspects of determining if a patient will benefit. It is important to ask specific questions about the patient’s pain, and when it started, as well as other pertinent questions. During the history, I also observe the patient. I observe how they walk, sit and how they move which are also very important.Doing a guided physical exam is extremely valuable with palpation techniques. For example, I look for involuntary muscle spasms when I am doing certain maneuvers. It is an additional indication of problems, rather than just relying on the patient saying, “Oh that’s painful,” or not. Sometimes the patient is not aware of these minute pain triggers.Then, of course, I look at the diagnostic testing reports. I don’t look at the diagnostic tests first. I only look at the diagnostic testing reports after I do my history and physical examination, and formulate an opinion on what is most likely causing the patient’s pain. Then, I look at the diagnostic test report(s), because in a significant number of cases, the issue that is noted on the testing is not necessarily the cause of the patient’s pain.

I have talked about this before in previous podcasts or blogs, but I’ll just briefly mention it again. Studies have been done to demonstrate this, that if you take 1,000 people who are asymptomatic, they have no back pain or pain in general.  They are doing well and they are functioning great; you do an MRIs on each of them, you are going to find herniated discs on 200 or more of those patients. Those herniated discs are not causing pain at all. You can’t just jump to the conclusion that their pain is always caused by herniated discs.

I determine what pathology is causing their symptoms and I treat that pathology appropriately.  This approach enables me to remove the cause of the pain. I have had patients who come with multiple tests and opinions from other doctors indicating that they need back surgery, but after I do my evaluation, I determine that it is another cause, for example, a hip issue.  After the hip issue is treated, the pain is improved.