Oxford Chiropractic Healthy News - March 2018

Healthcare professions are setting forth recommendations for practitioners to follow when dispensing health care with hopes to stimulate conversations between patients and their healthcare providers and among healthcare providers themselves. Your Oxford chiropractor at Satterwhite Chiropractic is always ready for such a conversation about Oxford back pain. Back pain is a big health concern affecting 80% of us in Oxford at some point in life. Back pain is managed by many kinds of physicians in many types of specialist societies. Their societal recommendations are similar regarding imaging (Don’t do within the first 6 weeks of pain except if there are “red flags.”), attempting non-surgical care before imaging and/or referring for back surgery, and progressing the patient care from passive to active care. For example, the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation recommends not ordering repeat epidural steroid injections without checking for the reaction to the last one and not prescribing opioid drugs for acute disabling low back pain without evaluation and a test of other alternatives. (2) The American Chiropractic Association recommends not performing repeat imaging to see how the patient is responding, not getting spinal imaging for acute low back pain in the first 6 weeks of pain unless red flags are present, and avoiding long term use of passive care but instead shift the patient to active care. (3) The American College of Emergency Room Physicians recommends sidestepping lumbar spine imaging in non-traumatic back pain unless there are severe or progressive neurological deficits or a suspicion of an underlying condition. (4) The American College of Physicians recommends not getting imaging studies in patients with non-specific low back pain. (5) The North American Spine Society recommends not suggesting bed rest for more than 48 hours for low back pain, not using EMG studies to establish the cause of spine pain, and not doing advanced spinal imaging (ex MRI) within the first 6 weeks of non-specific acute low back pain without red flags. (6) The Danish Health Authority recommends not sending patients for back surgery for a lumbar disc herniation with radiculopathy unless the severe and debilitating back pain continues for 12 weeks despite non-surgical treatment. (7) It’s up to you, the Oxford back pain patient or concerned loved one, to choose wisely the course of care for back pain relief. Consider these professions’ recommendations for back pain care to guide a conversation with your Oxford chiropractor, your Oxford back pain specialist, at Satterwhite Chiropractic as you choose the type of care appropriate for your Oxford back pain relief.

 

TIP OF THE MONTH: Try Non-Surgical Interventions for Oxford Back Pain

Common Oxford non-surgical interventions for Oxford back pain relief are pain medications, exercise, manual manipulation, massage, and heat/ice. (8, 9) Included in the top non-surgical interventions to try before Oxford back surgery is spinal manipulation (10) of which 90% (11) is performed by chiropractors. The Cox Technic System of Spine Care – spinal manipulation with exercise, nutrition and passive care for pain and inflammation reduction with increased active care importance as pain reduces – matches Choosing Wisely recommendations as it works toward 50% relief of pain within 30 days of care (which is more than the 30% or greater improvement in self-reported pain and function sought by medicine [12]) before advanced imaging or surgical referral in absence of red flags. Bring your Oxford back pain to your Oxford chiropractor’s office! Make it your first Oxford back pain relief healthcare stop!