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. How best can a Vancouver ER doc help?
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
Relief for the pain is what they focus on. 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 didn’t 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.