Pflugerville Chiropractic Healthy News - March 2018

Healthcare professions are establishing recommendations for practitioners to follow when delivering health care in hopes of opening conversations between patients and their healthcare providers and among healthcare providers themselves. Your Pflugerville chiropractor at Pflugerville Wellness Center is always ready for such a conversation about Pflugerville back pain. Back pain is a huge health issue distressing 80% of us in Pflugerville at some point in life. Back pain is handled by many kinds of physicians in many types of professional societies. Their societal recommendations are similar regarding imaging (Do not perform within the first 6 weeks of pain except if there are “red flags.”), attempting non-surgical care before imaging and/or referring for back surgery, and shifting the patient care from passive to active care. More precisely, the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation recommends not ordering repeat epidural steroid injections without checking for the reaction to the last one and not prescribing opioid drugs for acute disabling low back pain without assessment and a trial of other alternatives. (2) The American Chiropractic Association recommends not performing repeat imaging to see how the patient is responding, not obtaining spinal imaging for acute low back pain in the first 6 weeks of pain unless red flags are present, and avoiding long term usage of passive care but instead move the patient to active care. (3) The American College of Emergency Room Physicians recommends avoiding lumbar spine imaging in non-traumatic back pain except if there are severe or progressive neurological deficits or a suspicion of an underlying condition. (4) The American College of Physicians recommends not getting imaging studies in patients with non-specific low back pain. (5) The North American Spine Society recommends not advocating bed rest for more than 48 hours for low back pain, not using EMG studies to establish the cause of spine pain, and not ordering advanced spinal imaging (ex MRI) within the first 6 weeks of non-specific acute low back pain devoid of red flags. (6) The Danish Health Authority recommends not sending patients for back surgery for a lumbar disc herniation with radiculopathy except if the severe and debilitating back pain persists for 12 weeks notwithstanding non-surgical treatment. (7) It’s up to you, the Pflugerville back pain patient or concerned loved one, to choose wisely the course of care for back pain relief. Use these professions’ recommendations for back pain care to start a conversation with your Pflugerville chiropractor, your Pflugerville back pain specialist, at Pflugerville Wellness Center as you decide on the type of care proper for your Pflugerville back pain relief.

 

TIP OF THE MONTH: Try Non-Surgical Interventions for Pflugerville Back Pain

Common Pflugerville non-surgical interventions for Pflugerville back pain relief are pain medications, exercise, manual manipulation, massage, and heat/ice. (8, 9) Included in the top non-surgical interventions to try before Pflugerville back surgery is spinal manipulation (10) of which 90% (11) is performed by chiropractors. The Cox Technic System of Spine Care – spinal manipulation with exercise, nutrition and passive care for pain and inflammation reduction with increased active care importance as pain reduces – fits Choosing Wisely recommendations as it seeks 50% relief of pain within 30 days of care (which is more than the 30% or greater improvement in self-reported pain and function pursued by medicine [12]) before advanced imaging or surgical referral in absence of red flags. Bring your Pflugerville back pain to Pflugerville Wellness Center! Make it your first Pflugerville back pain relief healthcare stop!