Sandy Springs Chiropractic Healthy News - March 2018

Every profession is establishing recommendations for practitioners to follow when dispensing health care in hopes of opening conversations between patients and their healthcare providers and among healthcare providers themselves. Your Sandy Springs chiropractor at Cross Chiropractic Center is always ready for such a conversation about Sandy Springs back pain. Back pain is a huge health concern affecting 80% of us in Sandy Springs at some point in life. Back pain is managed by many sorts of physicians in many types of specialist societies. Their societal recommendations are comparable regarding imaging (Don’t perform in the first 6 weeks of pain unless there are “red flags.”), attempting non-surgical care ahead of imaging and/or referring for back surgery, and moving the patient care from passive care to active care. For example, the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation recommends not ordering repeat epidural steroid injections without evaluating the reaction to the last one and not prescribing opioid drugs for acute disabling low back pain without assessment and a test of other alternatives. (2) The American Chiropractic Association recommends not performing repeat imaging to monitor progress of care, 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 use of passive care but instead move the patient to active care. (3) The American College of Emergency Room Physicians recommends sidestepping lumbar spine imaging in non-traumatic back pain except if there are severe or progressive neurological deficits or a suspicion of an underlying issue. (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 suggesting bed rest for more than 48 hours for low back pain, not ordering EMG studies to establish the cause of spine pain, and not getting advanced spinal imaging (ex MRI) in the first six weeks of non-specific acute low back pain without red flags. (6) The Danish Health Authority recommends not referring patients for back surgery for a lumbar disc herniation with radiculopathy unless the severe and debilitating back pain continues for 12 weeks notwithstanding non-surgical treatment. (7) It is up to you, the Sandy Springs back pain patient or concerned loved one, to choose wisely the course of care for back pain relief. Consider these professions’ recommendations for back pain care to guide a conversation with your Sandy Springs chiropractor, your Sandy Springs back pain specialist, at Cross Chiropractic Center as you decide on the type of care appropriate for your Sandy Springs back pain relief.

 

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

Common Sandy Springs non-surgical interventions for Sandy Springs 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 Sandy Springs back surgery is spinal manipulation (10) of which 90% (11) is done 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 decreases – fits Choosing Wisely recommendations as it works toward 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 Sandy Springs back pain to Cross Chiropractic Center! Make it your first Sandy Springs back pain relief healthcare stop!