Objective: To describe 3 cases of discogenic low back pain and leg pain in which the centralization phenomenon was used in determining chiropractic treatment and prognosis.
Clinical features: Three men with low back pain and sciatica, positive straight leg raise, mild neurologic deficits, and evidence of discogenic disease requested chiropractic treatment. Two of the patients exhibited centralization of pain on provocation testing; the third did not.
Intervention and outcome: All patients were treated with chiropractic side-posture manipulation, ancillary therapies, and pain medications. The 2 subjects whose pain centralized had excellent outcomes to treatment. The one whose pain did not centralize had a poor outcome and eventually required surgery.
Conclusion: Assessment of the centralization phenomenon provided valuable diagnostic and prognostic information regarding chiropractic side-posture manipulation in this case series.