Concord, NC 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 choose the ER for help. It is a quandry 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 Concord, NC ER do? How can an ER doctor deliver higher value care? (2) Imaging and medication. What can the Concord, NC chiropractic back pain specialist offer? Spinal manipulation and nutrients. Chiropractic has published about successfully managing back pain.
EMERGENCY ROOM: IMAGING
The ER performs a lot of imaging. One in 3 patients who visit the emergency room for back pain (as opposed to 1 in 4 who visit a primary care physician) has imaging ordered: simple imaging 26%, complex imaging 8.2%. (3) Today’s imaging guidelines don’t support this as they say to hold off on imaging for 4-6 weeks of conservative care before imaging. (4) Maybe patients are letting the ER doctors know that they have been under such care already? Probably not as only 34% of patients who visit an ER share with the emergency department physician that they use 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 offer. Researchers have studied all sorts of pain medication combinations ER doctors have used to determine what is effective. What have they discovered? Stronger pain medication options don’t offer much of a difference. Adding baclofen, metaxalone, or tizanidine to ibuprofen does not seem to enhance 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 didn’t reduce pain scores or the need for other analgesic pain meds compared with either ibuprofen or acetaminophen alone for 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 continued to experience 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 ER physicians and their patients but not always for chiropractors and their chiropractic back pain patients. The Concord, NC chiropractic back pain specialist at Pure Chiropractic is equipped with the best of chiropractic care for Concord, NC back pain relief.
CHIROPRACTIC: MANIPULATION AND NUTRIENTS
Your Concord, NC chiropractor gets it. Experience 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 Concord, NC chiropractor’s confidence that back pain relief and management for many otherwise frustrated Concord, NC back pain patients is promising.
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Michael Schneider on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson who shares the role of the primary spine physician who would be the physician to turn to for back pain issues.
CONTACT Pure Chiropractic
Schedule a Concord, NC chiropractic appointment with Pure Chiropractic especially if an ER visit has not resulted in the pain relief you wanted. Concord, NC chiropractic care has shared a well-documented and researched way to manage back pain.
