Fernandina Beach Chiropractic Care Instead of an Emergency Room Visit and Pain Meds for Back Pain

Emergency room physicians are working on figuring out what is optimal to offer back pain patients who visit the ER for help. It’s a quandry for them, particularly since nearly 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 Fernandina Beach ER do? How can an ER doctor deliver higher value care? (2) Imaging and medication. What can the Fernandina Beach chiropractic back pain specialist provide? Spinal manipulation and nutrients. Chiropractic has published about successful management of back pain.

EMERGENCY ROOM: IMAGING

The ER performs 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) has imaging performed: 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 telling ER doctors that they have been using such care already? Not likely as only 34% of patients who visit an ER tell 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 looked at a variety of pain medication combinations ER doctors have prescribed to see what is effective. What have they found? 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 by 1 week after an ED visit for acute low back pain. (6,7) Mixing ibuprofen and acetaminophen did not reduce 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 emergency room for their back pain still had functional impairment 3 months later as well as 42% reported moderate or severe pain. 46% say they’ve used 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 physicians and their patients but not always for chiropractors and their chiropractic back pain patients. The Fernandina Beach chiropractic back pain specialist at Amelia Chiropractic Clinic is equipped with the best of chiropractic care for Fernandina Beach back pain relief.

CHIROPRACTIC: MANIPULATION AND NUTRIENTS

Your Fernandina Beach 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 Fernandina Beach chiropractor’s confidence that back pain relief and management for many otherwise frustrated Fernandina Beach 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 role of the primary spine physician who would be the physician to seek out for back pain issues.

CONTACT Amelia Chiropractic Clinic

Schedule a Fernandina Beach chiropractic visit with Amelia Chiropractic Clinic especially if an emergency department trip hasn’t resulted in the pain relief you hoped. Fernandina Beach chiropractic care has shared a well-documented and researched way to manage back pain.