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Vancouver Chiropractic Care Instead of an Emergency Room Visit and Pain Meds for Back Pain

Emergency room physicians are working on figuring out what is best to do for back pain patients who visit the ER for help. It’s a dilemma for them, especially since almost 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. What can a Vancouver ER do? How can an ER doctor deliver higher value care? (2) Imaging and medication. What can the Vancouver chiropractic back pain specialist offer? Spinal manipulation and nutrients. Chiropractic has published about successful management of back pain.

EMERGENCY ROOM: IMAGING

The ER performs plenty of imaging. One in 3 patients who go to the emergency room for back pain (as opposed to 1 in 4 who visit 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 under such care already? Not likely since only 34% of patients who go to 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 looked at a variety 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 up function or pain any more than placebo plus ibuprofen within a week after an ED visit for acute low back pain. (6,7) Combining ibuprofen and acetaminophen did not decrease 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 emergency room 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 may all be frustrating for ER docs and their patients but not typically for chiropractors and their chiropractic back pain patients. The Vancouver chiropractic back pain specialist at Vancouver Disc Centers is prepared with the best of chiropractic care for Vancouver back pain relief.

CHIROPRACTIC: MANIPULATION AND NUTRIENTS

Your Vancouver chiropractor gets it. Skill 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 Vancouver chiropractor’s confidence that back pain relief and management for many otherwise frustrated Vancouver 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 role of the primary spine physician who would be the physician to seek out for back pain issues.

CONTACT Vancouver Disc Centers

Schedule a Vancouver chiropractic appointment with Vancouver Disc Centers especially if an ER trip hasn’t produced the pain relief you wanted. Vancouver chiropractic care has shared a well-documented and researched way to manage back pain.

	Vancouver Disc Centers invites Vancouver back pain patients to the clinic instead of the emergency room for pain meds whenever possible. 
 
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"This information and website content is not intended to diagnose, guarantee results, or recommend specific treatment or activity. It is designed to educate and inform only. Please consult your physician for a thorough examination leading to a diagnosis and well-planned treatment strategy. See more details on the DISCLAIMER page. Content is reviewed by Dr. James M. Cox I."