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 optimal to do for back pain patients who choose the ER for help. It’s 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. What can a West Des Moines ER do? How can an ER doctor provide higher value care? (2) Imaging and medication. What can the West Des Moines chiropractic back pain specialist provide? Spinal manipulation and nutrients. Chiropractic has published about successfully managing back pain.
EMERGENCY ROOM: IMAGING
The ER does plenty of imaging. One in 3 patients who visit the emergency room for back pain (as opposed to 1 in 4 who visit a primary care physician) has imaging done: simple imaging 26%, complex imaging 8.2%. (3) Today’s imaging guidelines don’t support this as they say to hold 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 as only 34% of patients who visit an ER share with 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
Pain relief, it seems, is what they can do. Researchers have studied a variety of pain medication combinations ER doctors have used to see what is effective. What have they found? 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 within a week after an ED visit for acute low back pain. (6,7) Mixing 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 visit an emergency room 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 might be frustrating for emergency department physicians 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 equipped with the best of chiropractic care for West Des Moines back pain relief.
CHIROPRACTIC: MANIPULATION AND NUTRIENTS
Your West Des Moines 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 West Des Moines chiropractor’s confidence that back pain relief and management for many otherwise frustrated West Des Moines back pain patients is possible.
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Michael Schneider on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson who shares the role 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 visit 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.
