Vancouver Disc Centers Treats the Patient Not the MRI
Why do patients opt for back surgery? Pain. What conditions do they suffer with most that leads them to back surgery? Spinal stenosis. Spondylolisthesis. What symptoms do they want to get rid of? Butt pain. Leg pain. Back pain. Vancouver Disc Centers is available as your first stop to avoid back surgery or, for some, the last stop. For many back-related-pain patients, Vancouver chiropractic care does the trick and helps them avoid back surgery.
BACK PAIN SYMPTOMS
Back pain patients describe all types of painful and irritating symptoms: leg pain, numb toe(s), painful thighs, gluteal pain. (The adage that something is a “pain in the butt” is a preceise description of some back pain patients’ pain! That pain is a more radicular issue than degenerative change of facet joints. (1)) And lumbar spinal stenosis is the most usual reason for back surgery for US adults. A study of stenosis patients who have endured at least 3 years of pain showed that manual therapy and individualized exercise helped the most patients get greater than 30% improvement in symptoms and 20% in function. (2) Our use of the Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management aims for at least 50% relief in 30 days with many patients finding 60%, 70%, 80% and 90% quicker than that! Vancouver Disc Centers recognizes that there are Vancouver back pain sufferers who would rejoice at non-surgical relief like that!
BACK SURGERY: NECESSITY, COST AND IMAGING
Just how many back-pain patients with spinal stenosis or spondylolisthesis need surgery? 0.8%. This is reported in a study of 497,822 patients! The surgeon authors of this paper suggested doing decompression surgery without or with fusion sooner to lower the cost of non-operative treatment. (3) Goodness! The cost of a fusion in 2006 was $40,000 (4) and $80,000 to $100,000 in 2013, making back pain the foremost cause of disability in the world ahead of 290 other conditions. (5) [Chiropractic is said to be just 2.9% of the expense of back pain management. (6)] Over-imaging has added expense to back pain management: 1 in 4 (25%) of patients who go to a primary care doctors and 1 in 3 (33%) who go to the emergency room got imaging. (7) And how does imaging enhance patient care and clinical outcome? Interesting question. There is no correlation between MRI findings for stenosis and the severity of pain, quality of life, depression or anxiety. (8, 9) What does boost patient care and clinical outcome? Collaboration between physicians – surgical and non-surgical spine experts – helps chronic back pain patients improve in terms of pain as well as socially and mentally. (10) Vancouver Disc Centers welcomes such collaboration with you and your healthcare team! Your feeling better is our goal!
CONTACT Vancouver Disc Centers
Listen to this PODCAST by Dr. Kurt Olding on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson. Dr. Olding discusses lumbar spinal stenosis care with Cox® Technic that let a woman continue living life her way!
Schedule a non-surgical Vancouver chiropractic care appointment with Vancouver Disc Centers today. Physical, mental and emotional pain relief may be eased and back surgery dodged with gentle, safe chiropractic care at Vancouver Disc Centers where patient care is based on the patient not the MRI!
