St Peters 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 do for back pain patients who choose the ER for help. It is a quandry for them, especially since almost 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 St Peters ER doc help? How can an ER doctor deliver higher value care? (2) Imaging and medication. What can the St Peters chiropractic back pain specialist offer? Spinal manipulation and nutrients. Chiropractic has published about successfully managing back pain.
EMERGENCY ROOM: IMAGING
The ER orders plenty 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 done: 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 using such care already? Not likely as only 34% of patients who go to 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
Pain relief, it seems, is what they can offer. Researchers have studied all sorts of pain medication combinations ER doctors have used to see what works best. What have they found? 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) Mixing ibuprofen and acetaminophen did not decrease 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 visit an emergency room for their back pain continued to experience 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 day prior. There are short and long-term issues for ER patients with low back pain. (1) This might be frustrating for ER docs and their patients but not typically for chiropractors and their chiropractic back pain patients. The St Peters chiropractic back pain specialist at Old Mill Chiropractic is equipped with the best of chiropractic care for St Peters back pain relief.
CHIROPRACTIC: MANIPULATION AND NUTRIENTS
Your St Peters chiropractor gets it. 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 St Peters chiropractor’s confidence that back pain relief and management for many otherwise frustrated St Peters 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 Old Mill Chiropractic
Schedule a St Peters chiropractic visit with Old Mill Chiropractic especially if an emergency department trip has not resulted in the pain relief you hoped. St Peters chiropractic care has shared a well-documented and researched way to manage back pain.
