Plainville 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 choose 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 each year! (1) Unless there is cauda equina syndrome demanding surgery or an infection, pain is the issue. What can a Plainville ER do? How can an ER doctor deliver higher value care? (2) Imaging and medication. What can the Plainville chiropractic back pain specialist offer? Spinal manipulation and nutrients. Chiropractic has published about successful management of back pain.
EMERGENCY ROOM: IMAGING
The ER performs plenty of imaging. One in 3 patients who go to the emergency department for back pain (compared to 1 in 4 who seek care from 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 letting the ER doctors know 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
Relief for the pain is what they focus on. Researchers have looked at all sorts of pain medication combinations ER doctors have used to see what is effective. What have they discovered? Stronger pain medication options don’t offer much of a difference. Adding baclofen, metaxalone, or tizanidine to ibuprofen does not appear to enhance 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 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 continued to experience functional impairment 3 months later as well as 42% said they had moderate or severe pain. 46% say they’ve used 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 emergency department docs and their patients but not typically for chiropractors and their chiropractic back pain patients. The Plainville chiropractic back pain specialist at Layden Chiropractic is armed with the best of chiropractic care for Plainville back pain relief.
CHIROPRACTIC: MANIPULATION AND NUTRIENTS
Your Plainville 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 supports your Plainville chiropractor’s confidence that back pain relief and management for many otherwise frustrated Plainville back pain patients is possible.
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 Layden Chiropractic
Schedule a Plainville chiropractic appointment with Layden Chiropractic especially if an emergency department visit has not resulted in the pain relief you hoped. Plainville chiropractic care has shared a well-documented and researched way to manage back pain.
