Sitka Chiropractics Role in Back Pain Guidelines
Guidelines and recommendations for so many things from how to properly change a light bulb to when to do back surgery fill our daily lives. Guidelines are valued by people facing a new task or a new pain for the first time. Guidelines for the care of back pain have been published through the years, many listing non-surgical care including spinal manipulation as first line treatment. Just how well are those guidelines followed by relevant healthcare practitioners, by back pain patients? Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka found these newly published reports attention-getting and thought our Sitka chiropractic patients would, also. We can all use them to design and go along with a guideline-based treatment plan.
BACK PAIN TREATMENT GUIDELINES
Your Sitka chiropractor keeps abreast of the current guidelines to best assist you, our Sitka back pain patient. Back in 2009, the American College of Physicians added spinal manipulation to its guidelines’ recommendations of suitable spinal pain care options. (1) Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka uses the well-documented Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management which has a published algorithm of decision-making for patients suffering pain below the knee and patients with pain that doesn’t extend below the knee with a goal of 50% improvement in a month of care. These guidelines were released in 1996 and have been tested in clinic-based data collections through the years. (2) Such guidelines with research support and proper clinical application help our Sitka chiropractic patients!
ARE GUIDELINES BEING FOLLOWED?
We hope so! Nearly 64% of chiropractors say they use (Cox®) flexion distraction with their spine pain patients and have the algorithm/guideline accessible to them. Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka is one of those chiropractors. Beyond chiropractic, general guidelines for back pain care are also accessible. Are they followed? A recent review of chiropractic and OT/PT use among 146,087 adults with low back pain in the past 3 months documented that chiropractic care or OT/PT care for low back pain increased after clinical guidelines recommending their care were announced in 2016. Between 2002 and 2018, a little less than a third of those adults with low back pain reported undergoing chiropractic and/or PT/OT with a rise to a third after the 2016 clinical guidelines were published. (3) This does demonstrate that guidelines assist with treatment planning but are not always followed. In Denmark where guidelines for low back pain care are documented for primary care before being referred found that 33% of patients had not gone through an adequate course of treatment in primary care before being referred. The patients were on average 53 years old with almost 50% of them saying that they experienced pain for over a year, and 75% saying that they experienced pain below the knee. (4) Struggles in the healthcare system to abide by guidelines are seemingly global.
CHIROPRACTIC’S ROLE
A group of chiropractic leaders assembled their ideas on the role of the chiropractor in his/her own practice, with his/her own patients, within the healthcare community, and within society for healthcare. Quite interesting! Individually, chiropractors reported themselves as capable and well-educated spine and musculoskeletal care experts who delivered evidence-based care founded on the current research, clinical expertise, and patient values. They provided patient-centered care that spreads to cooperating with other healthcare providers in the best interests of the patient. (5) Using guidelines, chiropractors are sure that they can help their back pain patients with those patient’s best interests in mind.
CONTACT Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Ted Siciliano on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he illustrates his use of The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management to relieve a patient dealing with back pain and foot drop.
Make your Sitka chiropractic appointment today. Facing a serious episode of back pain is certainly not equivalent to changing a light bulb for the first time, but it’s comforting to know that there are available to best manage each task!
