Concord, NC Chiropractics Role in Back Pain Guidelines
Guidelines and recommendations for everything from how to correctly change a light bulb to appropriately decide on whether to do back surgery fill our daily lives. Guidelines are appreciated by people confronting a new task or a new pain for the first time. Guidelines for the care of back pain have been available through the years, many listing non-surgical care including spinal manipulation as first line treatment. Just how well are those guidelines followed by involved healthcare practitioners, by back pain sufferers? Pure Chiropractic found these newly published reports interesting and thought our Concord, NC chiropractic patients would, also. We can all use them to create and follow a guideline-based treatment plan.
BACK PAIN TREATMENT GUIDELINES
Your Concord, NC chiropractor is aware of the current guidelines to best assist you, our Concord, NC back pain patient. Back in 2009, the American College of Physicians listed spinal manipulation in its guidelines’ recommendations of appropriate spinal pain care choices. (1) Pure Chiropractic utilizes the well-documented Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management which has a published algorithm of decision-making for patients suffering pain below the knee and patients with pain that does not extend below the knee with a goal of 50% improvement in 30 days or so of care. These guidelines were released in 1996 and have been tested in clinic-based data collections through the years. (2) Such guidelines with research backing and proper clinical application build confidence that there is hope to our Concord, NC chiropractic patients!
ARE GUIDELINES BEING FOLLOWED?
We hope so! Nearly 64% of chiropractors say they use (Cox®) flexion distraction with their spine pain patients and have the algorithm/guideline accessible to them. Pure Chiropractic is one of those chiropractors. Beyond chiropractic, general guidelines for back pain care are available. Are they followed? A recent review of chiropractic and OT/PT use among 146,087 adults with low back pain in the past 3 months found that chiropractic care or OT/PT care for low back pain rose after clinical guidelines recommending their care were introduced in 2016. Between 2002 and 2018, a bit less than a third of said adults with low back pain said that they were undergoing chiropractic and/or PT/OT with an increase to a third after the 2016 clinical guidelines were released. (3) This does show that guidelines assist with treatment direction but are not always followed. In Denmark where guidelines for low back pain care are charted for primary care before referral found that 33% of patients had not gone through an adequate course of treatment in primary care before being referred. The patients were on average 53 years old with nearly 50% of them reporting that they had pain for more than a year, and 75% saying that they had pain below the knee. (4) Struggles in the healthcare system to follow guidelines are seemingly global.
CHIROPRACTIC’S ROLE
A group of chiropractic leaders shared their thoughts on the role of the chiropractor in his/her own practice, with his/her own patients, within the healthcare community, and within society for healthcare. Very interesting! Independently, chiropractors described themselves as capable and well-educated spine and musculoskeletal care experts who delivered evidence-based care founded on the current research, clinical expertise, and patient values. They delivered patient-centered care that spreads to cooperating with other healthcare providers in the best interests of the patient. (5) Using guidelines, chiropractors are sure that they can assist their back pain patients with those patient’s best interests in mind.
CONTACT Pure Chiropractic
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Ted Siciliano on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he illustrates his use of The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management to relieve a patient dealing with back pain and foot drop.
Schedule your Concord, NC chiropractic appointment today. Facing a serious bout of back pain is certainly not comparable to changing a light bulb for the first time, but it’s comforting to know that there are available to properly manage each task!
