Georgetown 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 come to 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 Georgetown ER doc help? How can an ER doctor provide higher value care? (2) Imaging and medication. What can the Georgetown chiropractic back pain specialist offer? Spinal manipulation and nutrients. Chiropractic has published about successfully managing back pain.
EMERGENCY ROOM: IMAGING
The ER orders 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) has imaging ordered: 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 under such care already? Not likely since only 34% of patients who visit an ER share with 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 a variety of pain medication combinations ER doctors have prescribed to determine what is effective. What have they discovered? Stronger pain medication options do not offer much of a difference. Adding baclofen, metaxalone, or tizanidine to ibuprofen does not appear 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) Combining ibuprofen and acetaminophen did not 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 visit an emergency room for their back pain continued to experience 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 might be frustrating for ER docs and their patients but not typically for chiropractors and their chiropractic back pain patients. The Georgetown chiropractic back pain specialist at Dr. Butwell is armed with the best of chiropractic care for Georgetown back pain relief.
CHIROPRACTIC: MANIPULATION AND NUTRIENTS
Your Georgetown chiropractor gets it. 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 boosts your Georgetown chiropractor’s confidence that back pain relief and management for many otherwise frustrated Georgetown 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 seek out for back pain issues.
CONTACT Dr. Butwell
Schedule a Georgetown chiropractic visit with Dr. Butwell especially if an emergency department trip has not produced the pain relief you hoped. Georgetown chiropractic care has figured out a well-documented and researched way to manage back pain.
