Sitka Chiropractic Care Instead of an Emergency Room Visit and Pain Meds for Back Pain
Emergency room physicians are trying to figure out what is best to do for back pain patients who come to the ER for help. It’s a quandry for them, particularly since nearly 3 million such patients with undifferentiated musculoskeletal low back pain go to the emergency room for help annually! (1) Unless there is cauda equina syndrome demanding surgery or an infection, pain is the issue. What can a Sitka ER do? How can an ER doctor provide higher value care? (2) Imaging and medication. What can the Sitka chiropractic back pain specialist offer? Spinal manipulation and nutrients. Chiropractic has published about successfully managing back pain.
EMERGENCY ROOM: IMAGING
The ER orders a lot of imaging. One in 3 patients who go to the emergency department for back pain (compared to 1 in 4 who visit a primary care physician) gets imaging performed: simple imaging 26%, complex imaging 8.2%. (3) Today’s imaging recommendations do not support this as they recommend holding off on imaging for 4-6 weeks of conservative care before imaging. (4) Maybe patients are letting the ER doctors know that they have been using such care already? Not likely as only 34% of patients who go to an ER tell the emergency department physician that they use healthcare options like chiropractors, massage therapy, acupuncture and the like. (5) What about the pain?
EMERGENCY ROOM: MEDICATIONS
Pain relief, it seems, is what they can offer. Researchers have studied all sorts of pain medication combinations ER doctors have prescribed to determine what works best. What have they found? Stronger pain medication options do not offer much of a difference. Adding baclofen, metaxalone, or tizanidine to ibuprofen does not appear to up function or pain any more than placebo plus ibuprofen within a week after an ED visit for acute low back pain. (6,7) Mixing ibuprofen and acetaminophen did not decrease pain scores or the need for other analgesic pain meds compared with either ibuprofen or acetaminophen alone in emergency room patients with acute musculoskeletal injuries. (8) As a matter of fact, 48% of back pain patients who go to an ER for their back pain still had functional impairment 3 months later as well as 42% said they had moderate or severe pain. 46% report using some type of analgesic pain reliever in the day prior. There are short and long-term problems for ER patients with low back pain. (1) This might be frustrating for emergency department docs and their patients but not typically for chiropractors and their chiropractic back pain patients. The Sitka chiropractic back pain specialist at Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka is armed with the best of chiropractic care for Sitka back pain relief.
CHIROPRACTIC: MANIPULATION AND NUTRIENTS
Your Sitka chiropractor understands. Skill with chiropractic spinal manipulation via The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management with the addition of nutrition like chondroitin sulfate, glucosamine sulfate and curcurmin and turmeric boosts your Sitka chiropractor’s confidence that back pain relief and management for many otherwise frustrated Sitka back pain patients is possible.
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Michael Schneider on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson who shares the goal of the primary spine physician who would be the physician to turn to for back pain issues.
CONTACT Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka
Schedule a Sitka chiropractic appointment with Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka especially if an ER visit has not produced the pain relief you wanted. Sitka chiropractic care has figured out a well-documented and researched way to manage back pain.
