Tonawanda 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 offer back pain patients who visit the ER for help. It’s a quandry for them, especially 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 Tonawanda ER doc help? How can an ER doctor provide higher value care? (2) Imaging and medication. What can the Tonawanda 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 room 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 do not 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 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 prescribed to see what works best. What have they found? Stronger pain medication options don’t offer much of a difference. Adding baclofen, metaxalone, or tizanidine to ibuprofen doesn’t appear to enhance 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 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 issues for ER patients with low back pain. (1) This may all 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. 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 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 shares the role of the primary spine physician who would be the physician to seek out for back pain issues.
CONTACT Chiropractic Spine Sports And Rehabilitation
Schedule a Tonawanda chiropractic visit with Chiropractic Spine Sports And Rehabilitation especially if an ER visit has not resulted in the pain relief you wanted. Tonawanda chiropractic care has figured out a well-documented and researched way to manage back pain.
