Groton Chiropractic Care Instead of an Emergency Room Visit and Pain Meds for Back Pain
Emergency room physicians are working on figuring out what is optimal to do for back pain patients who come to the ER for help. It’s a quandry for them, particularly since nearly 3 million such patients with undifferentiated musculoskeletal low back pain choose the emergency room for help annually! (1) Unless there is cauda equina syndrome demanding surgery or an infection, pain is the issue. How best can a Groton ER doc help? How can an ER doctor deliver higher value care? (2) Imaging and medication. What can the Groton chiropractic back pain specialist provide? Spinal manipulation and nutrients. Chiropractic has published about successful management of back pain.
EMERGENCY ROOM: IMAGING
The ER orders lots of imaging. One in 3 patients who visit 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 do not 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 under such care already? Not likely as only 34% of patients who go to 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
Relief for the pain is what they focus on. Researchers have studied all sorts of pain medication combinations ER doctors have used 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 up function or pain any more than placebo plus ibuprofen by 1 week after an ED visit for acute low back pain. (6,7) Mixing ibuprofen and acetaminophen did not 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 visit an ER for their back pain still had functional impairment 3 months later as well as 42% said they had 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 emergency department physicians and their patients but not typically for chiropractors and their chiropractic back pain patients. The Groton chiropractic back pain specialist at Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office is armed with the best of chiropractic care for Groton back pain relief.
CHIROPRACTIC: MANIPULATION AND NUTRIENTS
Your Groton 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 Groton chiropractor’s confidence that back pain relief and management for many otherwise frustrated Groton 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 goal of the primary spine physician who would be the physician to seek out for back pain issues.
CONTACT Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office
Schedule a Groton chiropractic visit with Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office especially if an ER visit has not produced the pain relief you wanted. Groton chiropractic care has shared a well-documented and researched way to manage back pain.
