Fort Wayne 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 offer 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 go to 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 Fort Wayne ER do? How can an ER doctor deliver higher value care? (2) Imaging and medication. What can the Fort Wayne chiropractic back pain specialist offer? Spinal manipulation and nutrients. Chiropractic has published about successful management of back pain.

EMERGENCY ROOM: IMAGING

The ER does a lot of imaging. One in 3 patients who visit the emergency department for back pain (compared 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 telling ER doctors that they have been using such care already? Not likely as only 34% of patients who go to 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

Relief for the pain is what they focus on. 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 enhance function or pain any more than placebo plus ibuprofen by 1 week after an ED visit for acute low back pain. (6,7) Combining ibuprofen and acetaminophen didn’t 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 go to an emergency room for their back pain continued to experience functional impairment 3 months later as well as 42% said they had moderate or severe pain. 46% report using 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 physicians and their patients but not typically for chiropractors and their chiropractic back pain patients. The Fort Wayne chiropractic back pain specialist at Aaron Chiropractic Clinic is equipped with the best of chiropractic care for Fort Wayne back pain relief.

CHIROPRACTIC: MANIPULATION AND NUTRIENTS

Your Fort Wayne 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 supports your Fort Wayne chiropractor’s confidence that back pain relief and management for many otherwise frustrated Fort Wayne back pain patients is promising.

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

CONTACT Aaron Chiropractic Clinic

Schedule a Fort Wayne chiropractic appointment with Aaron Chiropractic Clinic especially if an ER visit hasn’t produced the pain relief you wanted. Fort Wayne chiropractic care has figured out a well-documented and researched way to manage back pain.

	Aaron Chiropractic Clinic invites Fort Wayne back pain patients to the clinic instead of the emergency room for pain meds whenever possible. 
 
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"This information and website content is not intended to diagnose, guarantee results, or recommend specific treatment or activity. It is designed to educate and inform only. Please consult your physician for a thorough examination leading to a diagnosis and well-planned treatment strategy. See more details on the DISCLAIMER page. Content is reviewed by Dr. James M. Cox I."