McHenry 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 dilemma for them, especially since nearly 3 million such patients with undifferentiated musculoskeletal low back pain go to the emergency room for help annually! (1) Unless there is cauda equina syndrome demanding surgery or an infection, pain is the issue. How best can a McHenry ER doc help? How can an ER doctor deliver higher value care? (2) Imaging and medication. What can the McHenry chiropractic back pain specialist provide? 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 room for back pain (as opposed to 1 in 4 who go to a primary care physician) gets imaging ordered: simple imaging 26%, complex imaging 8.2%. (3) Today’s imaging recommendations don’t 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 using such care already? Not likely as 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
Relief for the pain is what they focus on. Researchers have studied a variety of pain medication combinations ER doctors have prescribed to determine 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 seem 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) Combining 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 visit an ER for their back pain continued to experience 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 might be frustrating for ER physicians and their patients but not typically for chiropractors and their chiropractic back pain patients. The McHenry chiropractic back pain specialist at OrthoIllinois Chiropractic is prepared with the best of chiropractic care for McHenry back pain relief.
CHIROPRACTIC: MANIPULATION AND NUTRIENTS
Your McHenry chiropractor understands. Skill 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 boosts your McHenry chiropractor’s confidence that back pain relief and management for many otherwise frustrated McHenry 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 OrthoIllinois Chiropractic
Schedule a McHenry chiropractic appointment with OrthoIllinois Chiropractic especially if an emergency department trip has not resulted in the pain relief you hoped. McHenry chiropractic care has figured out a well-documented and researched way to manage back pain.
