Baton Rouge Chiropractic Care Instead of an Emergency Room Visit and Pain Meds for Back Pain
Emergency room physicians are trying to figure out what is best to offer back pain patients who visit the ER for help. It is a dilemma for them, particularly 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. What can a Baton Rouge ER do? How can an ER doctor provide higher value care? (2) Imaging and medication. What can the Baton Rouge chiropractic back pain specialist offer? Spinal manipulation and nutrients. Chiropractic has published about successful management of back pain.
EMERGENCY ROOM: IMAGING
The ER performs lots of imaging. One in 3 patients who go to the emergency department for back pain (compared to 1 in 4 who go to a primary care physician) gets imaging done: simple imaging 26%, complex imaging 8.2%. (3) Today’s imaging guidelines don’t 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 under such care already? Not likely since 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 looked at a variety of pain medication combinations ER doctors have prescribed to figure out what works best. What have they found? Stronger pain medication options don’t offer much of a difference. Adding baclofen, metaxalone, or tizanidine to ibuprofen doesn’t appear to up function or pain any more than placebo plus ibuprofen by 1 week after an ED visit for acute low back pain. (6,7) Combining 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 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 problems 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 Baton Rouge chiropractic back pain specialist at Medical Spine and Sports Injury and Rehab Centers is equipped with the best of chiropractic care for Baton Rouge back pain relief.
CHIROPRACTIC: MANIPULATION AND NUTRIENTS
Your Baton Rouge chiropractor understands. Experience 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 Baton Rouge chiropractor’s confidence that back pain relief and management for many otherwise frustrated Baton Rouge 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 seek out for back pain issues.
CONTACT Medical Spine and Sports Injury and Rehab Centers
Schedule a Baton Rouge chiropractic appointment with Medical Spine and Sports Injury and Rehab Centers especially if an emergency department trip has not produced the pain relief you hoped. Baton Rouge chiropractic care has figured out a well-documented and researched way to manage back pain.
