Manchester 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 offer back pain patients who choose the ER for help. It’s a quandry for them, especially since almost 3 million such patients with undifferentiated musculoskeletal low back pain visit the emergency room for help each year! (1) Unless there is cauda equina syndrome demanding surgery or an infection, pain is the issue. What can a Manchester ER do? How can an ER doctor deliver higher value care? (2) Imaging and medication. What can the Manchester chiropractic back pain specialist provide? Spinal manipulation and nutrients. Chiropractic has published about successful management of back pain.
EMERGENCY ROOM: IMAGING
The ER performs a lot of imaging. One in 3 patients who go to the emergency room for back pain (compared to 1 in 4 who visit a primary care physician) gets imaging performed: simple imaging 26%, complex imaging 8.2%. (3) Today’s imaging guidelines don’t support this as they say to hold 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? Probably not 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 studied all sorts of pain medication combinations ER doctors have used to figure out what is effective. What have they discovered? Stronger pain medication options do not offer much of a difference. Adding baclofen, metaxalone, or tizanidine to ibuprofen does not appear to enhance function or pain any more than placebo plus ibuprofen by 1 week after an ED visit for acute low back pain. (6,7) Mixing ibuprofen and acetaminophen did not decrease pain scores or the need for other analgesic pain meds compared with either ibuprofen or acetaminophen alone for emergency room patients with acute musculoskeletal injuries. (8) As a matter of fact, 48% of back pain patients who go to 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 issues for ER patients with low back pain. (1) This may all be frustrating for emergency department docs and their patients but not always for chiropractors and their chiropractic back pain patients. The Manchester chiropractic back pain specialist at Manchester Chiropractic & Sports Injuries is equipped with the best of chiropractic care for Manchester back pain relief.
CHIROPRACTIC: MANIPULATION AND NUTRIENTS
Your Manchester chiropractor gets it. Familiarity 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 Manchester chiropractor’s confidence that back pain relief and management for many otherwise frustrated Manchester 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 Manchester Chiropractic & Sports Injuries
Schedule a Manchester chiropractic appointment with Manchester Chiropractic & Sports Injuries especially if an ER visit has not resulted in the pain relief you wanted. Manchester chiropractic care has figured out a well-documented and researched way to manage back pain.
