Vancouver Chiropractic Healthy News - March 2018

Healthcare professions are setting forth recommendations for practitioners to adhere to when dispensing health care with hopes to stimulate conversations between patients and their healthcare providers and among healthcare providers themselves. Your Vancouver chiropractor at Vancouver Disc Centers is always ready for such a conversation about Vancouver back pain. Back pain is a big health concern affecting 80% of us in Vancouver at some point in life. Back pain is managed by many kinds of physicians in many types of professional societies. Their societal recommendations are similar regarding imaging (Do not order in the first six weeks of pain unless there are “red flags.”), testing non-surgical care before imaging and/or referring for back surgery, and progressing the patient care from passive care to active care. For example, the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation recommends not ordering repeat epidural steroid injections without evaluating the response to the latter one and not prescribing opioid drugs for acute disabling low back pain without assessment and a trial of other alternatives. (2) The American Chiropractic Association recommends not doing repeat imaging to see how the patient is responding, not obtaining spinal imaging for acute low back pain in the first 6 weeks of pain unless red flags are present, and avoiding long term use of passive care but instead shift the patient to active care. (3) The American College of Emergency Room Physicians recommends avoiding lumbar spine imaging in non-traumatic back pain except if there are severe or progressive neurological deficits or a suspicion of an underlying condition. (4) The American College of Physicians recommends not ordering imaging studies in patients with non-specific low back pain. (5) The North American Spine Society recommends not advocating bed rest for more than 48 hours for low back pain, not using EMG studies to establish the cause of spine pain, and not ordering advanced spinal imaging (ex MRI) within the first 6 weeks of non-specific acute low back pain without red flags. (6) The Danish Health Authority recommends not sending patients for back surgery for a lumbar disc herniation with radiculopathy except if the severe and debilitating back pain continues for 12 weeks in spite of non-surgical treatment. (7) It’s up to you, the Vancouver back pain patient or concerned loved one, to choose wisely the path of care for back pain relief. Use these professions’ recommendations for back pain care to guide a conversation with your Vancouver chiropractor, your Vancouver back pain specialist, at Vancouver Disc Centers as you decide on the type of care proper for your Vancouver back pain relief.

 

TIP OF THE MONTH: Try Non-Surgical Interventions for Vancouver Back Pain

Common Vancouver non-surgical interventions for Vancouver back pain relief are pain medications, exercise, manual manipulation, massage, and heat/ice. (8, 9) Included in the top non-surgical interventions to try before Vancouver back surgery is spinal manipulation (10) of which 90% (11) is performed by chiropractors. The Cox Technic System of Spine Care – spinal manipulation with exercise, nutrition and passive care for pain and inflammation reduction with increased active care emphasis as pain reduces – fits Choosing Wisely recommendations as it seeks 50% relief of pain within 30 days of care (which is more than the 30% or greater improvement in self-reported pain and function sought by medicine [12]) before advanced imaging or surgical referral without red flags. Bring your Vancouver back pain to your Vancouver chiropractor’s office! Make it your first Vancouver back pain relief healthcare stop!