Juneau Chiropractic Care Instead of an Emergency Room Visit and Pain Meds for Back Pain
Emergency room physicians are trying to figure out what is best to do for back pain patients who choose the ER for help. It’s a dilemma for them, especially since nearly 3 million such patients with undifferentiated musculoskeletal low back pain go to 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 Juneau ER do? How can an ER doctor provide higher value care? (2) Imaging and medication. What can the Juneau chiropractic back pain specialist offer? Spinal manipulation and nutrients. Chiropractic has published about successfully managing back pain.
EMERGENCY ROOM: IMAGING
The ER orders lots of imaging. One in 3 patients who go to the emergency room for back pain (as opposed to 1 in 4 who go to a primary care physician) gets 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 telling ER doctors that they have been under such care already? Not likely since 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
Pain relief, it seems, is what they can offer. Researchers have studied all sorts of pain medication combinations ER doctors have prescribed to determine what is effective. What have they found? Stronger pain medication options do not 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) Mixing ibuprofen and acetaminophen did not 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% reported 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 docs and their patients but not typically for chiropractors and their chiropractic back pain patients. The Juneau chiropractic back pain specialist at Aurora Chiropractic Center is prepared with the best of chiropractic care for Juneau back pain relief.
CHIROPRACTIC: MANIPULATION AND NUTRIENTS
Your Juneau 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 Juneau chiropractor’s confidence that back pain relief and management for many otherwise frustrated Juneau 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 goal of the primary spine physician who would be the physician to seek out for back pain issues.
CONTACT Aurora Chiropractic Center
Schedule a Juneau chiropractic appointment with Aurora Chiropractic Center especially if an ER trip hasn’t produced the pain relief you wanted. Juneau chiropractic care has figured out a well-documented and researched way to manage back pain.
