Is ozone a good treatment for the low back?

Ozone promotes oxygenation and healing of damaged tissue. Some pain management doctors are now advertising that they perform ozone injections into painful discs. That may be what led one of our Best Practice Live subscribers to submit the questions above. I have to admit, since a herniated disc is damaged tissue with limited healing, the idea of injecting ozone into a herniated disc to help it heal is intuitively appealing.

Spoiler alert—the evidence doesn’t support it.

Before we get too far down this road, let’s focus on the most important thing… You! Read this table carefully and decide which column best describes your back pain.

Well, which column best describes your back pain?

The concept of ozone relieving pain by fighting inflammation makes sense only if you had radiculopathy (type C). But just because ozone could help with inflammation does not mean that it would. I searched the medical literature for trials and found no compelling evidence that led me to feel comfortable recommending ozone for the treatment of radiculopathy due to herniated disc.

I’m not alone. Here is a pyramid of acceptance which could be applied to any new procedure.

While there are pain management doctors who do offer intradiscal ozone injection, the procedure is not supported by the medical literature, not included in any professional society guidelines of which I am aware and is not approved by Medicare or reimbursed by commercial health insurance.

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