Chiropractic Relieves Disc Herniation Related Pain Often Without MRI

MRIs are cool. They show some amazing images of the body. Chiropractors like looking at spinal MRI images. Why? The spine is where chiropractors like your Tonawanda chiropractor live day in and day out. Chiropractic Spine Sports And Rehabilitation values the MRI image study for what it is: a tool. But MRIs are not always a clinical necessity. Can MRI help decide whether a surgical or non-surgical approach is appropriate for back pain relief? Read on for the most recent news.

The Usefulness of MRI

When a Tonawanda patient’s back pain, neck pain, arm pain or leg pain symptoms indicate the need for an MRI, Chiropractic Spine Sports And Rehabilitation requests one for such a Tonawanda back pain patient. MRI may enhance your Tonawanda chiropractor’s clinical understanding of the condition oftentimes (but not always!).  Pre-treatment and post-MRI studies are intriguing. Did the disc herniation shrink now that the pain is gone? Tonawanda chiropractic patients will often ask that of Chiropractic Spine Sports And Rehabilitation. And researchers will consider MRIs for their research studies on just such a question.

The Curiosity of MRI

Researchers aren’t the only ones who curiously survey MRI images of low back pain sufferers to ascertain if there is any correlation between pain and no pain and the MRI at the beginning and end of treatment for back pain. Patients wonder, too. Chiropractic Spine Sports And Rehabilitation knows our Tonawanda back pain patients wonder!

In noticing that doctors and patients dealing with back pain like MRIs, some researchers set out to determine if MRI is of value in determining how treatment outcomes will be for patients with sciatic leg pain due to a herniated lumbar disc. They questioned if MRI could help determine whether to do back surgery now or stay the course with conservative care. Chiropractic Spine Sports And Rehabilitation and the Tonawanda chiropractic low back pain patients we care for would love such a simple indicator! Study participants were randomly sent to surgical care or a course of prolonged conservative care. Two findings – a disc extrusion and nerve root compression on MRI in patients with less severe leg pain – signified a satisfactory outcome with either form of care. Another interesting finding:  the size of the disc herniation at the beginning of caredid not affect the outcome. There was no significant difference in outcomes between the two groups – surgical and conservative. (1) Chiropractic Spine Sports And Rehabilitation sees similar reports increasingly in the back pain research.  Recall the Atlas studies of surgical and non-surgical interventions for back pain and sciatica? There was not much variation in those landmark studies either: 50% vs. 53% non-surgical versus surgical for back pain due to spinal stenosis (2) and 69% versus 61% surgical vs. non-surgical for sciatica (3).

Chiropractic Spine Sports And Rehabilitation Offers Chiropractic Non-Surgical Care of Disc Herniation

Chiropractic Spine Sports And Rehabilitation encourages you to make a Tonawanda chiropractic appointment today. Trust Chiropractic Spine Sports And Rehabilitation to provide evidence-based chiropractic care that relieves your spine pain many times without an MRI. Together, we can set a non-surgical (and even potentially non-MRI!) treatment plan to reduce your back pain.

Schedule your Tonawanda chiropractic appointment now.