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

Emergency room physicians are working on figuring out what is best to offer 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 visit 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 Tonawanda ER do? How can an ER doctor deliver higher value care? (2) Imaging and medication. What can the Tonawanda chiropractic back pain specialist offer? Spinal manipulation and nutrients. Chiropractic has published about successful management of back pain.

EMERGENCY ROOM: IMAGING

The ER does lots 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) has imaging done: simple imaging 26%, complex imaging 8.2%. (3) Today’s imaging guidelines don’t support this as they say to hold 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 share with 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 a variety of pain medication combinations ER doctors have used to see what is effective. What have they discovered? Stronger pain medication options do not offer much of a difference. Adding baclofen, metaxalone, or tizanidine to ibuprofen doesn’t appear to improve 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 reduce 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 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 might be frustrating for ER physicians and their patients but not typically for chiropractors and their chiropractic back pain patients. The Tonawanda chiropractic back pain specialist at Chiropractic Spine Sports And Rehabilitation is equipped with the best of chiropractic care for Tonawanda back pain relief.

CHIROPRACTIC: MANIPULATION AND NUTRIENTS

Your Tonawanda chiropractor understands. Familiarity 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 Tonawanda chiropractor’s confidence that back pain relief and management for many otherwise frustrated Tonawanda 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 goal of the primary spine physician who would be the physician to turn to for back pain issues.

CONTACT Chiropractic Spine Sports And Rehabilitation

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

	Chiropractic Spine Sports And Rehabilitation welcomes Tonawanda 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."