Ozone therapy is highly effective in reliving both acute and chronic back pain. It is safe, convenient, and inexpensive. Ozone has a short half-life of approximately 1 hour at room temperature. It has been used in relieving pain in degenerative disc disease and is a superior option than steroid use. It can be administered as a first line treatment. Both the intradiscal and intramuscular injection of oxygen-ozone are successful approaches.
Ozone therapy reactivates the innate antioxidant system. In disc herniation ozone is injected in disc space where it dissolves in interstitial water and forms H2O2 and hydroxyl radicals, this reacts with the proteoglycans leading to their breakdown resulting in matrix degeneration with progressive shrinkage and disappearance of the herniated material. The amount injected is 3–10 mL with ozone concentration of about 30 μg/mL. It shows a positive response in 70–80% of cases of patients with low spinal pain
Ozone therapy can act as a pro-drug. Ozone displays a number of beneficial effects, ranging from the inhibition of inflammation, correction of ischemia and venous stasis to inducing a reflex therapy effect by stimulating anti-nociceptor analgesic mechanisms, and can also help reduce pain, accelerate nerve tissue regeneration, slow degenerative disc disease, accelerate ligament healing and facilitate fracture healing. Ozone therapy appears also very effective in alleviating osteoarthritis and several other joint-tendinitis affections