Lumbar fracture (L4 / L5)

What is Lumbar fracture (L4 / L5)?

The lower back has five bones, L1 to L5, stacked above the sacrum. L4 and L5 carry the most weight. A fracture may be a small crack, a bone squashed into a wedge (compression fracture), or a bone broken into pieces after a hard fall or accident.

Doctors sort fractures into stable (the bones stay in line) and unstable (the bones shift). Unstable fractures can press on the nerves and usually need surgery. Nerves leaving the spine at L4 and L5 run down the legs, so a fracture here can bring pain, numbness or weakness in the legs.

What are the symptoms?

• Sudden, sharp, knife-like pain in the lower back
• Pain worse on standing or walking, easier lying down
• Swelling or tenderness over the spine
• Loss of height or a stooped posture over time
• Numbness, tingling or weakness in the legs

What causes it, and who is more likely to get it?

How is it found?

A suspected spinal fracture is checked by a doctor with an examination and pictures of the spine before anything else is done.

A neurotherapist asks for the X-ray or MRI report and the doctor's advice before the first session. The report decides which bones are fractured — and so which points are barred.

How Neurotherapy sees Lumbar fracture (L4 / L5)

LMNT looks at where the pain travels. When L4 is fractured, the nerves going to the inner side of the calves are pulled; when L5 is fractured, the nerves going to the outer side of the calves. So the work is done on the legs, not on the broken bone.

The L4 Fracture point is given with the patient lying face down, with pressure on the inner side of the calves; the L5 Fracture point on the outer side. Where there is a fracture anywhere between L1 and S1, the spinal point (6) L3, 4, 5 is never given.

Neurotherapy treatment for Lumbar fracture (L4 / L5), step by step

1. Doctor and imaging first

   Any back pain after a fall or accident, or sudden sharp back pain in someone with thin bones, is seen by a doctor or orthopaedic surgeon, with an X-ray or MRI.

2. Examine first

   The therapist checks Liv° and Mu°, reads the report to see which bones are fractured, and asks where the pain or numbness runs in the legs.

   Liv°Mu°

3. L4 Fracture point — inner calves

   Lying face down, pressure on the calf muscles on the inner side — only as much as the patient can bear, never on bone.

   L4 Fracture

4. L5 Fracture point — outer calves

   The same position, with pressure on the outer side of the calves, for a fracture of L5.

   L5 Fracture

Points and formulas used

Watch

L4 FRACTURE

A practical demonstration of the L4 Fracture point: the patient lies face down with pillows under the thighs and knees, heels turned inward, and the therapist, steadying their weight on two chairs, presses the inner calf muscles with the heel in three rounds of rising pressure, asking the patient how much they can bear, then gently massages the ankle area.

The demonstrator uses small jerks and says the spinal bead "sets at once" — that is his own remark, not a promise. In LMNT teaching this point is given only after a doctor has checked the fracture, the pressure stays on the calf muscle, never on the spine or a bone, and only as much as the patient can bear.

L5 FRACTURE

A practical demonstration of the L5 Fracture point: the patient lies face down with pillows under the thigh and knees, and the therapist presses along the calf muscles from just below the knee towards the ankle in three rounds of rising pressure, keeping off the knee and bone and checking the patient's comfort, then finishes by rubbing the heel and the top of the foot.

The demonstration uses small jerks. In LMNT teaching this point is given only after a doctor has checked the fracture, with the pressure on the calf muscle, never on the spine or a bone, and only as much as the patient can bear.

How the L4 and L5 Fracture points are given on the calves — only once the doctor has checked the fracture.

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