What do you expect from your
Toronto chiropractic care of back pain? That is a key question. Research
reports that that questions of expectations plays
a role in back pain treatment outcome whether that treatment is surgical or conservative. Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre intends
to hear your expectations of our Toronto back
pain treatment and share the outcomes of our treatment
documented in practice and in
research.
INFLUENTIAL EXPECTATIONS FOR BACK SURGERY OUTCOMES
A recent research project scrutinized
patient and surgeon expectations of back surgery. Patients expected complete
relief and improvement of their back pain after lumbar spine surgery. Surgeons
expected improvement that ranged from a little to a lot dependant on the patient and his/her specific issues. Whose
expectations were met? The surgeons’
expectations. A couple years after the back surgery, the outcomes
reported by patients met the surgeon’s expectations.
The researchers stressed that effective communication about expectations
may well foster better outcomes. (1) That’s
why Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre devotes time to each Toronto
back pain patient at the beginning of care, making sure the source of pain and its treatment plan are well-described.
If not, tell us!
AN ACCEPTABLE SYMPTOM STATE
If original
patient expectations aren’t met with back surgery,
what is an “acceptable symptom state” for that back pain patient? What can he/she live with? For patients with chronic non-specific low back pain (with or
without active discopathy), 54% reported having an acceptable symptom
state at 1 month of care. Specifically, patient-reported acceptable symptoms included: 47.5 for lumbar pain, 30.5 for radicular pain, 39.3 for
disability, 10.0 for anxiety, and 6.7 for depression. (2) Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre appreciates that no pain is the preferred state and is prepared to discuss
with our Toronto chiropractic patients their options and possible
outcomes.
DECIDING ON TREATMENT OPTIONS
Deciding
whether to have back surgery is a big decision. Evidence-based medicine views
the patient as being the center of care. What is
the patient perspective of this care? How is the patient perspective considered in treatment planning and choosing from available options? A new paper pointed
out that the patient’s social, psychological, and other non-clinical
characteristics must be considered in planning care. (3)
One factor in the back-surgery decision that reportedly influences
the decision and the outcome expectation is opioid use. Lower dose and shorter-time-taking
opioid use patients expected more complete improvement compared
with non-users. They also had higher
expectations of positive outcome than higher-dose opioid patients. (4) For a
lot of patients, the prospect of work is goal of back pain treatment which is positive
according to a new report on how back pain patient recovery
expectations influence clinical outcomes. A review of
60 studies found that a patient’s recovery expectations are
probably strongly associated with future work participation. (5) Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre employs
effective, nonsurgical care of back pain to meet patient expectations once the research on outcomes for other back pain
sufferers is presented and understood. Toronto chiropractic care keeps the back pain patient at its center.
CONTACT Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre
Listen to this PODCAST
with Dr. Anthony Galante on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr.
Michael Johnson as he explained how Cox®
Technic System of Spinal Pain Management and chiropractic treatment helped manage back pain for a patient who was absolutely
positive about not wanting back surgery.
Make your next Toronto
chiropractic visit today. Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre wants to know your answer to the question of your
expectations for our treatment so that we can both be satisfied
with the outcome!