Carrolltown Chiropractic Care Instead of an Emergency Room Visit and Pain Meds for Back Pain
Emergency room physicians are working on figuring out what is optimal to do for back pain patients who visit the ER for help. It is a quandry for them, particularly since nearly 3 million such patients with undifferentiated musculoskeletal low back pain choose the emergency room for help annually! (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 deliver higher value care? (2) Imaging and medication. What can the Carrolltown chiropractic back pain specialist provide? 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 visit the emergency department for back pain (compared to 1 in 4 who visit a primary care physician) has imaging done: simple imaging 26%, complex imaging 8.2%. (3) Today’s imaging recommendations 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? Probably not as only 34% of patients who visit 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 looked at a variety of pain medication combinations ER doctors have used to figure out 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 within a week after an ED visit for acute low back pain. (6,7) Combining ibuprofen and acetaminophen did not decrease pain scores or the need for other analgesic pain meds compared with either ibuprofen or acetaminophen alone for emergency room patients with acute musculoskeletal injuries. (8) As a matter of fact, 48% of back pain patients who go to an emergency room for their back pain continued to experience 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 may all be frustrating for emergency department docs and their patients but not typically for chiropractors and their chiropractic back pain patients. The Carrolltown chiropractic back pain specialist at Gormish Chiropractic & Rehabilitation is equipped with the best of chiropractic care for Carrolltown back pain relief.
CHIROPRACTIC: MANIPULATION AND NUTRIENTS
Your Carrolltown chiropractor gets it. Experience 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 Carrolltown chiropractor’s confidence that back pain relief and management for many otherwise frustrated Carrolltown 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 seek out for back pain issues.
CONTACT Gormish Chiropractic & Rehabilitation
Schedule a Carrolltown chiropractic appointment with Gormish Chiropractic & Rehabilitation especially if an ER trip hasn’t resulted in the pain relief you wanted. Carrolltown chiropractic care has figured out a well-documented and researched way to manage back pain.
