Fort Wayne Chiropractics Role in Back Pain Guidelines
Guidelines and recommendations for so many things from how to properly replace a light bulb to appropriately decide on whether to do back surgery pervade our world. Guidelines are appreciated by people confronting a new challenge or a new pain for the first time. Guidelines for the care of back pain have been published through the years, many citing non-surgical care including spinal manipulation as first line treatment. Just how well are those guidelines followed by involved healthcare providers, by back pain sufferers? Aaron Chiropractic Clinic found these newly published reports attention-getting and thought our Fort Wayne chiropractic patients would, also. We can all use them to create and follow a guideline-based treatment plan.
BACK PAIN TREATMENT GUIDELINES
Your Fort Wayne chiropractor keeps abreast of the current guidelines to best assist you, our Fort Wayne back pain patient. Back in 2009, the American College of Physicians added spinal manipulation to its guidelines’ recommendations of suitable spinal pain care choices. (1) Aaron Chiropractic Clinic utilizes the well-documented Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management which has a published algorithm of decision-making for patients with pain below the knee and patients who have pain that doesn’t go below the knee with a goal of 50% improvement in a month of care. These guidelines were released in 1996 and have been tested in clinic-based data collections through the years. (2) Such guidelines with research support and proper clinical application help our Fort Wayne chiropractic patients!
ARE GUIDELINES BEING FOLLOWED?
We hope so! Nearly 64% of chiropractors say they use (Cox®) flexion distraction with their spine pain patients and have the algorithm/guideline accessible to them. Aaron Chiropractic Clinic is one of those chiropractors. Beyond chiropractic, broad guidelines for back pain care are also accessible. Are they followed? A newly completed review of chiropractic and OT/PT use among 146,087 adults with low back pain in the past 3 months documented that chiropractic care or OT/PT care for low back pain rose after clinical guidelines recommending their care were announced in 2016. Between 2002 and 2018, a little less than a third of those adults with low back pain reported getting chiropractic and/or PT/OT with an increase to a third after the 2016 clinical guidelines were published. (3) This does demonstrate that guidelines assist with treatment direction but are not always followed. In Denmark where guidelines for low back pain care are outlined for primary care before referral found that 33% of patients had not undergone an adequate course of treatment in primary care before referral. The patients were on average 53 years old with almost 50% of them saying that they experienced pain for more than a year, and 75% reporting pain below the knee. (4) Struggles in the healthcare system to abide by guidelines are seemingly global.
CHIROPRACTIC’S ROLE
A group of chiropractic leaders assembled their ideas on the role of the chiropractor in his/her own practice, with his/her own patients, within the healthcare community, and within society for healthcare. Quite interesting! Independently, chiropractors described themselves as experienced and well-educated spine and musculoskeletal care experts who provided evidence-based care based on the latest research, clinical expertise, and patient values. They provided patient-centered care that spreads to cooperating with other healthcare providers with the best interest of the patient in mind. (5) Using guidelines, chiropractors are sure that they can help their back pain patients with their best interests in mind.
CONTACT Aaron Chiropractic Clinic
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Ted Siciliano on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he illustrates his use of The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management to relieve a patient dealing with back pain and foot drop.
Make your Fort Wayne chiropractic appointment soon. Facing a serious episode of back pain is certainly not comparable to changing a light bulb for the first time, but it is comforting to know that there are published guidelines to properly manage each task!
