Emergency room physicians are working on figuring out what is best to do for back pain patients who come to the ER for help. It is a quandry 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. How best can a Southern New Hampshire ER doc help? How can an ER doctor deliver higher value care? (2) Imaging and medication. What can the Southern New Hampshire chiropractic back pain specialist offer? Spinal manipulation and nutrients. Chiropractic has published about successful management of back pain.
EMERGENCY ROOM: IMAGING
The ER performs lots of imaging. One in 3 patients who go to the emergency room for back pain (as opposed to 1 in 4 who seek care from a primary care physician) has imaging ordered: simple imaging 26%, complex imaging 8.2%. (3) Today’s imaging recommendations do not support this as they say to hold 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 since only 34% of patients who visit an ER tell 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
Relief for the pain is what they focus on. Researchers have looked at a variety of pain medication combinations ER doctors have used to figure out what works best. What have they discovered? Stronger pain medication options do not offer much of a difference. Adding baclofen, metaxalone, or tizanidine to ibuprofen does not seem 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 ER for their back pain still had 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 last day. There are short and long-term issues for ER patients with low back pain. (1) This may all be frustrating for ER physicians and their patients but not always for chiropractors and their chiropractic back pain patients. The Southern New Hampshire chiropractic back pain specialist at New Hampshire Spine and Sport is armed with the best of chiropractic care for Southern New Hampshire back pain relief.
CHIROPRACTIC: MANIPULATION AND NUTRIENTS
Your Southern New Hampshire 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 Southern New Hampshire chiropractor’s confidence that back pain relief and management for many otherwise frustrated Southern New Hampshire back pain patients is possible.
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 New Hampshire Spine and Sport
Schedule a Southern New Hampshire chiropractic visit with New Hampshire Spine and Sport especially if an emergency department visit has not resulted in the pain relief you hoped. Southern New Hampshire chiropractic care has figured out a well-documented and researched way to manage back pain.