Georgetown Chiropractic Healthy News - March 2018

Healthcare professions are setting forth recommendations for practitioners to adhere to when dispensing health care in hopes of opening conversations between patients and their healthcare providers and among healthcare providers themselves. Your Georgetown chiropractor at Dr. Butwell is always ready for such a conversation about Georgetown back pain. Back pain is a big health issue upsetting 80% of us in Georgetown at some point in life. Back pain is dealt with by many kinds of physicians in many kinds of professional societies. Their societal recommendations are similar concerning imaging (Do not perform within the first 6 weeks of pain except if there are “red flags.”), trying non-surgical care ahead of imaging and/or referring for back surgery, and moving the patient care from passive care to active care. More precisely, the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation recommends not ordering repeat epidural steroid injections without evaluating the reaction to the last one and not prescribing opioid drugs for acute disabling low back pain without assessment and a trial of other alternatives. (2) The American Chiropractic Association recommends not performing repeat imaging to see how the patient is responding, not obtaining spinal imaging for acute low back pain in the first 6 weeks of pain unless there are red flags, and avoiding long term usage of passive care but instead move the patient to active care. (3) The American College of Emergency Room Physicians recommends avoiding lumbar spine imaging in non-traumatic back pain unless there are severe or progressive neurological deficits or a suspicion of an underlying issue. (4) The American College of Physicians recommends not obtaining imaging studies in patients with non-specific low back pain. (5) The North American Spine Society recommends not advocating bed rest for more than 48 hours for low back pain, not ordering EMG studies to determine the cause of spine pain, and not doing advanced spinal imaging (ex MRI) in the first 6 weeks of non-specific acute low back pain devoid of red flags. (6) The Danish Health Authority recommends not referring patients for back surgery for a lumbar disc herniation with radiculopathy except if the severe and debilitating back pain persists for 12 weeks in spite of non-surgical treatment. (7) It is up to you, the Georgetown back pain patient or concerned loved one, to choose wisely the path of care for back pain relief. Use these professions’ recommendations for back pain care to start a conversation with your Georgetown chiropractor, your Georgetown back pain specialist, at Dr. Butwell as you choose the type of care appropriate for your Georgetown back pain relief.

 

TIP OF THE MONTH: Try Non-Surgical Interventions for Georgetown Back Pain

Common Georgetown non-surgical interventions for Georgetown back pain relief are pain medications, exercise, manual manipulation, massage, and heat/ice. (8, 9) Included in the top non-surgical interventions to try before Georgetown back surgery is spinal manipulation (10) of which 90% (11) is performed by chiropractors. The Cox Technic System of Spine Care – spinal manipulation with exercise, nutrition and passive care for pain and inflammation reduction with more active care emphasis as pain reduces – fits Choosing Wisely recommendations as it works toward 50% relief of pain within 30 days of care (which is more than the 30% or greater improvement in self-reported pain and function sought by medicine [12]) before advanced imaging or surgical referral in absence of red flags. Bring your Georgetown back pain to Dr. Butwell! Make it your first Georgetown back pain relief healthcare stop!