CLEVELAND -- Those who suffer from lower back pain know that it can often make enjoying everyday life next to impossible.

But there's a new procedure available locally, and NewsChannel5's Alicia Booth reported that many of the patients who have had it call it a life-saver.

As executive director of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Traci Felder's work is all about making sick children feel better. But for the last two years, sick is how she felt.

"It's horrible," she said.

After a car accident, Felder could never get comfortable. Every position she was in hurt something on her body. She thought her lower back would never be the same again, until a procedure known as I-Det.

"Two days later, I could not believe it," she said. "I woke up, and I had no leg pinching whatsoever. I couldn't believe it."

But Dr. Samuel Rosenburg of University Hospitals could believe it, because 60 to 70 percent of the patients who have had I-Det swear by it.

"Simply because many of these patients are going back to work and are going back to a productive life," he said.

Here's how it works. Doctors insert a large needle into the injured disc between the vertabrae, then a catheter, and then a heating element, which actually burns off some of the tissue. When the tissue re-grows, it comes back healthy. Essentially, patients said that it's a big shot that can work wonders.

Unfortunately, I-Det is not for everyone. Rosenburg said that he sees patients with lower back pain every day and that very few of them are eligible for the procedure. The procedure is only for people with a specific injury to one of their discs.

I-Det also has risks, so patients should make sure that their doctor knows what he or she is doing.

That vote of confidence in Rosenburg changed Felder's life forever.

"He is truly a miracle worker, in my opinion," she said.

Felder had her surgery Jan. 7, and she is still wearing a back brace while her disc heals. But she will be able to put the brace away in a couple of days and return to normal life for the first time in years, NewsChannel5 reported.