La Grande Chiropractic Care Instead of an Emergency Room Visit and Pain Meds for Back Pain

Emergency room physicians are working on figuring out what is optimal to do for 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 visit 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 deliver 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 a lot 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) gets imaging performed: 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 letting the ER doctors know that they have been under such care already? Probably not 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

Pain relief, it seems, is what they can offer. Researchers have studied all sorts of pain medication combinations ER doctors have used to figure out 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 improve 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 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% reported moderate or severe pain. 46% say they’ve used some type of analgesic pain reliever in the last day. There are short and long-term issues for ER patients with low back pain. (1) This may all be frustrating for ER docs and their patients but not typically for chiropractors and their chiropractic back pain patients. The La Grande chiropractic back pain specialist at Dr. 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 understands. 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 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 Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC

Schedule a La Grande chiropractic appointment with Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC especially if an ER visit hasn’t produced the pain relief you wanted. La Grande chiropractic care has shared a well-documented and researched way to manage back pain.