Oxford 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 come to the ER for help. It is a dilemma for them, especially 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 Oxford ER do? How can an ER doctor provide higher value care? (2) Imaging and medication. What can the Oxford chiropractic back pain specialist offer? Spinal manipulation and nutrients. Chiropractic has published about successful management of back pain.
EMERGENCY ROOM: IMAGING
The ER does plenty of imaging. One in 3 patients who go to the emergency department for back pain (compared to 1 in 4 who go to a primary care physician) gets imaging ordered: 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 telling ER doctors that they have been using such care already? Probably not since only 34% of patients who visit an ER tell 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 determine what works best. What have they found? Stronger pain medication options do not offer much of a difference. Adding baclofen, metaxalone, or tizanidine to ibuprofen doesn’t seem to improve 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 didn’t reduce 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 issues for ER patients with low back pain. (1) This may all be frustrating for emergency department docs and their patients but not typically for chiropractors and their chiropractic back pain patients. The Oxford chiropractic back pain specialist at Satterwhite Chiropractic is armed with the best of chiropractic care for Oxford back pain relief.
CHIROPRACTIC: MANIPULATION AND NUTRIENTS
Your Oxford 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 boosts your Oxford chiropractor’s confidence that back pain relief and management for many otherwise frustrated Oxford back pain patients is promising.
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 Satterwhite Chiropractic
Schedule a Oxford chiropractic visit with Satterwhite Chiropractic especially if an emergency department trip hasn’t resulted in the pain relief you hoped. Oxford chiropractic care has shared a well-documented and researched way to manage back pain.
