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Carrolltown Chiropractic Care Instead of an Emergency Room Visit and Pain Meds for Back Pain

Emergency room physicians are trying to figure out what is optimal to do for back pain patients who choose the ER for help. It is a quandry for them, especially since almost 3 million such patients with undifferentiated musculoskeletal low back pain choose the emergency room for help each year! (1) Unless there is cauda equina syndrome demanding surgery or an infection, pain is the issue. How best can a Carrolltown ER doc help? How can an ER doctor provide higher value care? (2) Imaging and medication. What can the Carrolltown chiropractic back pain specialist offer? Spinal manipulation and nutrients. Chiropractic has published about successfully managing back pain.

EMERGENCY ROOM: IMAGING

The ER does plenty of imaging. One in 3 patients who visit the emergency room for back pain (compared to 1 in 4 who go to a primary care physician) gets imaging ordered: simple imaging 26%, complex imaging 8.2%. (3) Today’s imaging guidelines don’t support this as they recommend holding off on imaging for 4-6 weeks of conservative care before imaging. (4) Maybe patients are telling ER doctors that they have been under such care already? Not likely as only 34% of patients who visit an ER share with the emergency department physician that they get 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 do. Researchers have looked at a variety of pain medication combinations ER doctors have used to determine what is effective. What have they found? Stronger pain medication options don’t 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 by 1 week after an ED visit for acute low back pain. (6,7) Combining ibuprofen and acetaminophen didn’t 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 visit an emergency room 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 last day. There are short and long-term problems for ER patients with low back pain. (1) This may all be frustrating for emergency department docs and their patients but not always for chiropractors and their chiropractic back pain patients. The Carrolltown chiropractic back pain specialist at Gormish Chiropractic & Rehabilitation is armed with the best of chiropractic care for Carrolltown back pain relief.

CHIROPRACTIC: MANIPULATION AND NUTRIENTS

Your Carrolltown 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 supports your Carrolltown chiropractor’s confidence that back pain relief and management for many otherwise frustrated Carrolltown back pain patients is promising.

Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Michael Schneider on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson who describes the role of the primary spine physician who would be the physician to seek out for back pain issues.

CONTACT Gormish Chiropractic & Rehabilitation

Schedule a Carrolltown chiropractic appointment with Gormish Chiropractic & Rehabilitation especially if an ER trip has not produced the pain relief you wanted. Carrolltown chiropractic care has figured out a well-documented and researched way to manage back pain.

	Gormish Chiropractic & Rehabilitation welcomes Carrolltown back pain patients to the clinic instead of the emergency room for pain meds whenever possible. 
 
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"This information and website content is not intended to diagnose, guarantee results, or recommend specific treatment or activity. It is designed to educate and inform only. Please consult your physician for a thorough examination leading to a diagnosis and well-planned treatment strategy. See more details on the DISCLAIMER page. Content is reviewed by Dr. James M. Cox I."