Oxford Chiropractic and Back Pain Relief Expectations via Surgical or Conservative Care
What do you expect from your Oxford chiropractic care of back pain? That is a key question. Research is reporting that it plays a role in back pain treatment outcome be the treatment surgical or conservative. Satterwhite Chiropractic intends to listen to you and your expectations of our Oxford back pain treatment and present what our treatment’s outcomes have been in practice and in research.
INFLUENTIAL EXPECTATIONS FOR BACK SURGERY OUTCOMES
A recent research project studied patient and surgeon expectations of back surgery. Patients expected full relief and improvement of their back pain after lumbar spine surgery. Surgeons expected improvement that varied from a little to a lot depending on the patient and his/her specific issues. Can you guess whose expectations were met? The surgeons’ expectations. Two years after the back surgery, the patient-reported outcomes met the surgeon’s expectations. The researchers stressed that effective communication about expectations may well foster better outcomes. (1) That is why Satterwhite Chiropractic spends time with each Oxford back pain patient at the beginning of care, ensuring that the source of pain and its treatment plan are well-explained. If not, tell us!
AN ACCEPTABLE SYMPTOM STATE
If a patient doesn’t experience the relief he/she desired from back surgery, what is an “acceptable symptom state” for that back pain patient? What can he/she live with? For patients with chronic non-specific low back pain (with or without active discopathy), 54% reported having an acceptable symptom state at 1 month of care. Specifically, patient-reported acceptable symptoms involved these: 47.5 for lumbar pain, 30.5 for radicular pain, 39.3 for disability, 10.0 for anxiety, and 6.7 for depression. (2) Satterwhite Chiropractic appreciates that no pain is the preferred state and is prepared to discuss with our Oxford chiropractic patients their options and potential outcomes.
DECIDING ON TREATMENT OPTIONS
Deciding whether to have back surgery is a big decision. Evidence-based medicine views the patient as being the center of care. What is the patient perspective of this care? How is the patient perspective considered in treatment planning and decision making among available options? A recent paper pointed out that the patient’s social, psychological, and other non-clinical characteristics must be taken into account in planning care. (3) One issue in the back-surgery decision that reportedly influences the decision and the outcome expectation is opioid use. Lower dose and shorter-time-taking opioid use patients expected more complete improvement compared with non-users. They also had higher expectations of positive outcome than higher-dose opioid patients. (4) For a lot of patients, the prospect of work is goal of back pain treatment which is affirming according to this new report on how back pain patient recovery expectations influence clinical outcomes. A review of 60 studies found that a patient’s recovery expectations are probably strongly associated with future work participation. (5) Satterwhite Chiropractic employs effective, nonsurgical treatment of back pain to meet patient expectations once the research on outcomes for other back pain sufferers is described and understood. Oxford chiropractic care keeps the back pain patient at its center.
CONTACT Satterwhite Chiropractic
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Anthony Galante on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he described how Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management and chiropractic treatment helped manage back pain for a patient who was absolutely positive about not wanting back surgery.
Schedule your next Oxford chiropractic visit today. Satterwhite Chiropractic invites you to ponder and answer the question of your expectations for our treatment so that we can both be satisfied with the outcome!
