Guidelines and recommendations for so many
things from how to properly change a light bulb
to appropriately decide on whether to do back surgery fill
our daily lives. Guidelines are valued by people confronting
a new challenge or a new pain for the first
time. Guidelines for the care of back pain have been published
for years, many listing non-surgical
care including spinal manipulation as first line treatment. Just how well are
those guidelines followed by relevant healthcare providers,
by back pain patients? Layden Chiropractic found these recent reports attention-getting and thought
our Plainville 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 Plainville chiropractor is aware of the current guidelines to best assist you, our Plainville
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) Layden Chiropractic uses the well-documented Cox® Technic
System of Spinal Pain Management which has a published algorithm of
decision-making for patients suffering pain below the knee
and patients with pain that doesn’t
go below the knee with a goal of 50% improvement in 30 days or
so of care. These guidelines were released in 1996
and have been tested in clinic-based data collections in the years since. (2) Such guidelines with research support and
proper clinical application build confidence that there is hope to
our Plainville 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. Layden Chiropractic 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 found that
chiropractic care or OT/PT care for low back pain increased after
clinical guidelines recommending their care were announced in
2016. Between 2002 and 2018, a little less than a third of said
adults with low back pain said that they were getting chiropractic and/or PT/OT with an increase
to a third after the 2016 clinical guidelines were published.
(3) This does show that guidelines help
with treatment direction but are not always followed. In Denmark
where guidelines for low back pain care are defined
for primary care before referral found that 33% of
patients had not undergone an adequate course of treatment
in primary care before referral. The patients were on
average 53 years old with nearly 50% of them saying
that they’d had pain for over a
year, and 75% reporting
pain below the knee. (4) Struggles in the healthcare system to follow guidelines are seemingly global.
CHIROPRACTIC’S ROLE
A group of chiropractic leaders shared
their thoughts 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 described themselves as capable
and well-educated spine and musculoskeletal care experts who provided
evidence-based care founded on the current research,
clinical expertise, and patient values. They provided
patient-centered care that spreads to cooperating with other
healthcare providers with the best interest of the patient in mind. (5) Using guidelines, chiropractors are
sure that they can help their back pain patients with
their best interests in mind.
CONTACT Layden Chiropractic
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 help
a patient dealing with back pain and foot drop.
Make your Plainville chiropractic
appointment soon. Facing a serious bout of back
pain is certainly not comparable to changing a light bulb for
the first time, but it is comforting to know that there are published
guidelines to navigate the way through the task!