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 come to the ER for help. It’s a dilemma for them, especially since nearly 3 million such patients with undifferentiated musculoskeletal low back pain visit 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 orders a lot 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) has imaging done: simple imaging 26%, complex imaging 8.2%. (3) Today’s imaging recommendations do not 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 as only 34% of patients who go to an ER share with the emergency department physician that they get 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 prescribed 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 doesn’t appear to improve 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 reduce 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 continued to experience functional impairment 3 months later as well as 42% reported moderate or severe pain. 46% say they’ve used some type of analgesic pain reliever in the day prior. There are short and long-term problems for ER patients with low back pain. (1) This might be frustrating for ER physicians 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 understands. 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 Vancouver chiropractor’s confidence that back pain relief and management for many otherwise frustrated Vancouver back pain patients is promising.
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Michael Schneider on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson who describes the goal of the primary spine physician who would be the physician to turn to for back pain issues.
CONTACT Vancouver Disc Centers
Schedule a Vancouver chiropractic visit with Vancouver Disc Centers especially if an emergency department trip has not resulted in the pain relief you hoped. Vancouver chiropractic care has figured out a well-documented and researched way to manage back pain.
