Chiropractic Relieves Disc Herniation Related Pain Often Without MRI
MRIs are cool. They show some amazing images of the body. Chiropractors appreciate spinal MRI images. Why? The spine is your St Peters chiropractor’s realm! Old Mill Chiropractic appreciates the MRI image study for what it is: a tool. But MRIs are not always clinically necessary. Can MRI help determine whether to use non-surgical care or surgical care for back pain relief? Read on for the latest findings.
The Usefulness of MRI
When a St Peters patient’s back pain, neck pain, arm pain or leg pain symptoms indicate the demand for an MRI, Old Mill Chiropractic arranges one for such a St Peters back pain patient. MRI may add to your St Peters chiropractor’s clinical knowledge of the condition oftentimes (but not always!). Pre-treatment and post-MRI studies are intriguing. Did the disc herniation reduce now that the pain disappeared? St Peters chiropractic patients will often ask that of Old Mill Chiropractic. And researchers will examine MRIs for their research studies on just such a query.
The Curiosity of MRI
Researchers aren’t the only ones who curiously survey MRI images of low back pain sufferers to see if there is any correlation between pain and no pain and the MRI at the beginning and end of treatment for back pain. Patients wonder, too. Old Mill Chiropractic is well aware that our St Peters back pain patients wonder!
Knowing that doctors and patients dealing with back pain like MRIs, a group of researchers set out to determine if MRI is of value in determining how treatment outcomes will be for patients with sciatic leg pain due to a herniated lumbar disc. They questioned if MRI could help decide whether to do back surgery now or stay the course with conservative care. Old Mill Chiropractic and the St Peters chiropractic low back pain patients we treat would love such a simple indicator! Study participants were randomly sent to surgical care or a course of prolonged conservative care. Two findings – a disc extrusion and nerve root compression on MRI in patients with less severe leg pain – indicated a satisfactory outcome with either type of care. Another interesting finding: the size of the disc herniation at the beginning of care didn’t affect the outcome. There was no significant difference in outcomes between them – surgical and conservative. (1) Old Mill Chiropractic reads similar reports increasingly in the back pain research. Remember the Atlas studies of surgical and non-surgical interventions for back pain and sciatica? There wasn’t much difference in those landmark studies either: 50% versus 53% non-surgical vs. surgical for back pain due to spinal stenosis (2) and 69% versus 61% surgical versus non-surgical for sciatica (3).
Old Mill Chiropractic Offers Chiropractic Non-Surgical Care of Disc Herniation
Old Mill Chiropractic invites you to make a St Peters chiropractic appointment today. Trust Old Mill Chiropractic to provide evidence-based chiropractic care that relieves your spine pain many times without an MRI. Together, we can create a non-surgical (and even potentially non-MRI!) treatment plan to alleviate your back pain.
Schedule your St Peters chiropractic appointment today.
