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Toronto Chiropractic Care Instead of an Emergency Room Visit and Pain Meds for Back Pain

Emergency room physicians are trying to figure out what is best to offer back pain patients who visit the ER for help. It is a quandry for them, particularly since almost 3 million such patients with undifferentiated musculoskeletal low back pain choose 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 Toronto ER doc help? How can an ER doctor provide higher value care? (2) Imaging and medication. What can the Toronto chiropractic back pain specialist provide? Spinal manipulation and nutrients. Chiropractic has published about successfully managing back pain.

EMERGENCY ROOM: IMAGING

The ER performs plenty of imaging. One in 3 patients who go to the emergency room for back pain (as opposed to 1 in 4 who go to 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 say to hold off on imaging for 4-6 weeks of conservative care before imaging. (4) Maybe patients are telling ER doctors that they have been under such care already? Probably not since 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

Pain relief, it seems, is what they can do. Researchers have studied a variety of pain medication combinations ER doctors have used to determine what works best. What have they found? Stronger pain medication options don’t offer much of a difference. Adding baclofen, metaxalone, or tizanidine to ibuprofen doesn’t seem to improve function or pain any more than placebo plus ibuprofen by 1 week after an ED visit for acute low back pain. (6,7) Combining ibuprofen and acetaminophen did not reduce pain scores or the need for other analgesic pain meds compared with either ibuprofen or acetaminophen alone in 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 day prior. There are short and long-term issues for ER patients with low back pain. (1) This might be frustrating for ER docs and their patients but not typically for chiropractors and their chiropractic back pain patients. The Toronto chiropractic back pain specialist at Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre is equipped with the best of chiropractic care for Toronto back pain relief.

CHIROPRACTIC: MANIPULATION AND NUTRIENTS

Your Toronto chiropractor understands. 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 supports your Toronto chiropractor’s confidence that back pain relief and management for many otherwise frustrated Toronto back pain patients is promising.

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 Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre

Schedule a Toronto chiropractic visit with Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre especially if an ER trip has not resulted in the pain relief you wanted. Toronto chiropractic care has figured out a well-documented and researched way to manage back pain.

	Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre invites Toronto 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."