Emergency room physicians are trying
to figure out what is optimal 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 each year! (1) Unless there is
cauda equina syndrome demanding surgery or an infection, pain is the issue. How best can a La Grande ER doc help?
How can an ER doctor provide higher value care? (2) Imaging and
medication. What can the La Grande chiropractic back pain specialist provide?
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 visit the emergency department
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 recommendations
don’t 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 using
such care already? Probably not as 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
all sorts of pain medication combinations ER doctors have prescribed
to see what works best. What have
they discovered? Stronger pain medication options don’t
offer much of a difference. Adding baclofen, metaxalone, or tizanidine to
ibuprofen does not appear to up
function or pain any more than placebo plus ibuprofen within a week
after an ED visit for acute low back pain. (6,7) Combining
ibuprofen and acetaminophen did not decrease 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 problems for ER patients
with low back pain. (1) This may all be frustrating for ER docs and their patients but not always
for chiropractors and their chiropractic back pain patients. The
La Grande chiropractic back pain specialist at Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC is
armed with the best of chiropractic care for
La Grande back pain relief.
CHIROPRACTIC: MANIPULATION AND NUTRIENTS
Your La Grande chiropractor gets it.
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 La Grande chiropractor’s confidence that back
pain relief and management for many otherwise frustrated La Grande
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 Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC
Schedule a La Grande chiropractic visit
with Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC especially if an emergency department trip
hasn’t resulted in the pain relief you hoped.
La Grande chiropractic care has shared a well-documented
and researched way to manage back pain.