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West Palm Beach Chiropractic Care Instead of an Emergency Room Visit and Pain Meds for Back Pain

Emergency room physicians are working on figuring out what is best to do for back pain patients who choose the ER for help. It is a dilemma for them, especially since nearly 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. What can a West Palm Beach ER do? How can an ER doctor deliver higher value care? (2) Imaging and medication. What can the West Palm Beach chiropractic back pain specialist offer? Spinal manipulation and nutrients. Chiropractic has published about successfully managing back pain.

EMERGENCY ROOM: IMAGING

The ER performs a lot of imaging. One in 3 patients who go to the emergency room for back pain (as opposed to 1 in 4 who visit a primary care physician) gets imaging ordered: simple imaging 26%, complex imaging 8.2%. (3) Today’s imaging guidelines do not 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 as only 34% of patients who go to 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 studied all sorts of pain medication combinations ER doctors have prescribed to see 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 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) Mixing ibuprofen and acetaminophen didn’t decrease 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 still had functional impairment 3 months later as well as 42% reported 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 emergency department docs and their patients but not always for chiropractors and their chiropractic back pain patients. The West Palm Beach chiropractic back pain specialist at Chiropractic Care is equipped with the best of chiropractic care for West Palm Beach back pain relief.

CHIROPRACTIC: MANIPULATION AND NUTRIENTS

Your West Palm Beach 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 West Palm Beach chiropractor’s confidence that back pain relief and management for many otherwise frustrated West Palm Beach 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 Chiropractic Care

Schedule a West Palm Beach chiropractic visit with Chiropractic Care especially if an emergency department visit has not produced the pain relief you hoped. West Palm Beach chiropractic care has figured out a well-documented and researched way to manage back pain.

	Chiropractic Care welcomes West Palm Beach 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."