Emergency room physicians are working on figuring out what is optimal to do for back pain
patients who come to the ER for help. It is a quandry
for them, particularly since almost 3 million such
patients with undifferentiated musculoskeletal low back pain visit 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 Eugene ER do?
How can an ER doctor deliver higher value care? (2) Imaging and
medication. What can the Eugene chiropractic back pain specialist provide?
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 visit the emergency room
for back pain (compared to 1 in 4 who seek care
from a primary care physician) gets imaging performed:
simple imaging 26%, complex imaging 8.2%. (3) Today’s imaging recommendations
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
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 up
function or pain any more than placebo plus ibuprofen within a 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 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% report using some type of analgesic pain reliever in the last
day. 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
Eugene chiropractic back pain specialist at Rethwill Chiropractic Clinic is
equipped with the best of chiropractic care for
Eugene back pain relief.
CHIROPRACTIC: MANIPULATION AND NUTRIENTS
Your Eugene 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 supports your Eugene chiropractor’s confidence that back
pain relief and management for many otherwise frustrated Eugene
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 goal of the primary spine physician who would be the physician
to seek out for back pain issues.
CONTACT Rethwill Chiropractic Clinic
Schedule a Eugene chiropractic visit
with Rethwill Chiropractic Clinic especially if an ER visit
hasn’t produced the pain relief you wanted.
Eugene chiropractic care has figured out a well-documented
and researched way to manage back pain.