Ashburn and Herndon Chiropractic Care Instead of an Emergency Room Visit and Pain Meds for Back Pain
Emergency room physicians are trying to figure out what is optimal to offer back pain patients who visit the ER for help. It is a quandry for them, particularly since almost 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 Ashburn and Herndon ER do? How can an ER doctor provide higher value care? (2) Imaging and medication. What can the Ashburn and Herndon chiropractic back pain specialist offer? Spinal manipulation and nutrients. Chiropractic has published about successfully managing back pain.
EMERGENCY ROOM: IMAGING
The ER does plenty of imaging. One in 3 patients who visit the emergency room for back pain (compared to 1 in 4 who seek care from a primary care physician) gets imaging done: simple imaging 26%, complex imaging 8.2%. (3) Today’s imaging guidelines do not support this as they say to hold off on imaging for 4-6 weeks of conservative care before imaging. (4) Maybe patients are letting the ER doctors know that they have been under such care already? Probably not since only 34% of patients who visit 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 a variety of pain medication combinations ER doctors have used to see what works best. What have they discovered? Stronger pain medication options don’t offer much of a difference. Adding baclofen, metaxalone, or tizanidine to ibuprofen does not 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) Mixing 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 go to an ER for their back pain continued to experience functional impairment 3 months later as well as 42% reported 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 typically for chiropractors and their chiropractic back pain patients. The Ashburn and Herndon chiropractic back pain specialist at Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn is equipped with the best of chiropractic care for Ashburn and Herndon back pain relief.
CHIROPRACTIC: MANIPULATION AND NUTRIENTS
Your Ashburn and Herndon chiropractor understands. 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 Ashburn and Herndon chiropractor’s confidence that back pain relief and management for many otherwise frustrated Ashburn and Herndon back pain patients is possible.
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Michael Schneider on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson who shares the goal of the primary spine physician who would be the physician to turn to for back pain issues.
CONTACT Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn
Schedule a Ashburn and Herndon chiropractic appointment with Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn especially if an ER visit hasn’t resulted in the pain relief you wanted. Ashburn and Herndon chiropractic care has figured out a well-documented and researched way to manage back pain.
