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 best to offer back pain patients who choose the ER for help. It is a dilemma for them, particularly since almost 3 million such patients with undifferentiated musculoskeletal low back pain choose 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 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 offer? Spinal manipulation and nutrients. Chiropractic has published about successfully managing 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 go to a primary care physician) gets imaging ordered: simple imaging 26%, complex imaging 8.2%. (3) Today’s imaging recommendations 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 telling ER doctors 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 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 all sorts 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 within a week after an ED visit for acute low back pain. (6,7) Combining ibuprofen and acetaminophen didn’t 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 ER for their back pain still had functional impairment 3 months later as well as 42% said they had moderate or severe pain. 46% say they’ve used some type of analgesic pain reliever in the day prior. There are short and long-term problems for ER patients with low back pain. (1) This may all be frustrating for ER docs 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 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 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 describes the role of the primary spine physician who would be the physician to turn to for back pain issues.
CONTACT Amelia Chiropractic Clinic
Schedule a Fernandina Beach chiropractic appointment with Amelia Chiropractic Clinic especially if an ER trip has not resulted in the pain relief you wanted. Fernandina Beach chiropractic care has figured out a well-documented and researched way to manage back pain.
