Murfreesboro Chiropractic Care Instead of an Emergency Room Visit and Pain Meds for Back Pain
Emergency room physicians are trying to figure out what is best to offer back pain patients who come to the ER for help. It’s a quandry 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 Murfreesboro ER do? How can an ER doctor provide higher value care? (2) Imaging and medication. What can the Murfreesboro chiropractic back pain specialist offer? Spinal manipulation and nutrients. Chiropractic has published about successful management of back pain.
EMERGENCY ROOM: IMAGING
The ER does a lot of imaging. One in 3 patients who go to the emergency department for back pain (as opposed to 1 in 4 who visit a primary care physician) has imaging ordered: simple imaging 26%, complex imaging 8.2%. (3) Today’s imaging guidelines do not support this as they recommend holding 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 tell 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 studied a variety of pain medication combinations ER doctors have prescribed to figure out 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 doesn’t seem to improve function or pain any more than placebo plus ibuprofen by 1 week after an ED visit for acute low back pain. (6,7) Combining ibuprofen and acetaminophen did not reduce 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 problems for ER patients with low back pain. (1) This might be frustrating for emergency department docs and their patients but not always for chiropractors and their chiropractic back pain patients. The Murfreesboro chiropractic back pain specialist at Most Chiropractic Clinic is prepared with the best of chiropractic care for Murfreesboro back pain relief.
CHIROPRACTIC: MANIPULATION AND NUTRIENTS
Your Murfreesboro 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 Murfreesboro chiropractor’s confidence that back pain relief and management for many otherwise frustrated Murfreesboro back pain patients is promising.
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 Most Chiropractic Clinic
Schedule a Murfreesboro chiropractic visit with Most Chiropractic Clinic especially if an ER trip has not produced the pain relief you wanted. Murfreesboro chiropractic care has figured out a well-documented and researched way to manage back pain.
