Guidelines and recommendations for everything from how to properly replace a light bulb
to appropriately decide on whether to do back surgery fill
our world. Guidelines are valued by people facing
a new task or a new pain for the first
time. Guidelines for the care of back pain have been issued
for years, many citing non-surgical
care including spinal manipulation as first line treatment. Just how well are
those guidelines followed by relevant healthcare practitioners,
by back pain sufferers? New Roads Chiropractic Center found these recent reports interesting and thought
our New Roads chiropractic patients would, also. We can all
use them to create and go along with a guideline-based
treatment plan.
BACK PAIN TREATMENT GUIDELINES
Your New Roads chiropractor is aware of the current guidelines to best assist you, our New Roads
back pain patient. Back in 2009, the American College of Physicians listed spinal
manipulation in its guidelines’
recommendations of appropriate spinal pain care choices.
(1) New Roads Chiropractic Center utilizes the well-documented Cox® Technic
System of Spinal Pain Management which has a published algorithm of
decision-making for patients who have pain below the knee
and patients who have pain that doesn’t
go below the knee with a goal of 50% improvement in a month of care. These guidelines came out in 1996
and have been tested in clinic-based data collections through
the years. (2) Such guidelines with research support and
proper clinical application build confidence that there is hope to
our New Roads chiropractic patients!
ARE GUIDELINES BEING FOLLOWED?
We hope so! Nearly 64% of chiropractors say they use (Cox®)
flexion distraction with their spine pain patients and have the algorithm/guideline
accessible to them. New Roads Chiropractic Center is one of those
chiropractors. Beyond chiropractic, broad guidelines for back
pain care are also accessible. Are they followed? A newly
completed review of chiropractic and OT/PT use among 146,087 adults
with low back pain in the past 3 months documented that
chiropractic care or OT/PT care for low back pain rose after
clinical guidelines recommending their care were introduced in
2016. Between 2002 and 2018, a little less than a third of said
adults with low back pain reported undergoing chiropractic and/or PT/OT with an increase
to a third after the 2016 clinical guidelines were released.
(3) This does show that guidelines assist
with treatment direction but are not always followed. In Denmark
where guidelines for low back pain care are documented
for primary care before referral found that 33% of
patients had not gone through an adequate course of treatment
in primary care before being referred. The patients were on
average 53 years old with nearly 50% of them saying
that they experienced pain for over a
year, and 75% saying that they had
pain below the knee. (4) Struggles in the healthcare system to follow guidelines are seemingly global.
CHIROPRACTIC’S ROLE
A group of chiropractic leaders compiled
their ideas on the role of the chiropractor in his/her own
practice, with his/her own patients, within the healthcare community, and
within society for healthcare. Quite interesting! Individually,
chiropractors reported themselves as capable
and well-educated spine and musculoskeletal care experts who delivered
evidence-based care based on the latest research,
clinical expertise, and patient values. They delivered
patient-centered care that extends to cooperating with other
healthcare providers in the
best interests of the patient. (5) Using guidelines, chiropractors are
sure that they can assist their back pain patients with
their best interests in mind.
CONTACT New Roads Chiropractic Center
Listen to this PODCAST
with Dr. Ted Siciliano on The Back Doctors Podcast with
Dr. Michael Johnson as he illustrates his use
of The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management to relieve
a patient dealing with back pain and foot drop.
Schedule your New Roads chiropractic
appointment now. Facing a serious bout of back
pain is certainly not equivalent to changing a light bulb for
the first time, but it is comforting to know that there are available to navigate the way through the task!