West Des Moines 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 dilemma for them, particularly since almost 3 million such patients with undifferentiated musculoskeletal low back pain choose 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 West Des Moines ER doc help? How can an ER doctor provide higher value care? (2) Imaging and medication. What can the West Des Moines chiropractic back pain specialist offer? Spinal manipulation and nutrients. Chiropractic has published about successful management of back pain.

EMERGENCY ROOM: IMAGING

The ER does lots of imaging. One in 3 patients who go to the emergency room 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 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 using such care already? Probably not as 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

Pain relief, it seems, is what they can offer. Researchers have studied a variety 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 doesn’t seem 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) Mixing ibuprofen and acetaminophen didn’t 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 ER for their back pain still had 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 may all be frustrating for emergency department docs and their patients but not always for chiropractors and their chiropractic back pain patients. The West Des Moines chiropractic back pain specialist at Executive Chiropractic of Iowa is prepared with the best of chiropractic care for West Des Moines back pain relief.

CHIROPRACTIC: MANIPULATION AND NUTRIENTS

Your West Des Moines 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 boosts your West Des Moines chiropractor’s confidence that back pain relief and management for many otherwise frustrated West Des Moines back pain patients is promising.

Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Michael Schneider on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson who shares the goal of the primary spine physician who would be the physician to seek out for back pain issues.

CONTACT Executive Chiropractic of Iowa

Schedule a West Des Moines chiropractic appointment with Executive Chiropractic of Iowa especially if an emergency department trip has not resulted in the pain relief you hoped. West Des Moines chiropractic care has figured out a well-documented and researched way to manage back pain.