Largo Chiropractics Role in Back Pain Guidelines
Guidelines and recommendations for so many things from how to properly replace a light bulb to when to do back surgery fill our world. Guidelines are appreciated by people facing a new task or a new health condition for the first time. Guidelines for the care of back pain have been published for years, many citing non-surgical care including spinal manipulation as first line treatment. Just how well are those guidelines followed by relevant healthcare providers, by back pain sufferers? Hollstrom & Associates Inc found these recent reports attention-getting and thought our Largo chiropractic patients would, also. We can all use them to create and follow a guideline-based treatment plan.
BACK PAIN TREATMENT GUIDELINES
Your Largo chiropractor keeps abreast of the current guidelines to best help you, our Largo back pain patient. Back in 2009, the American College of Physicians added spinal manipulation to its guidelines’ recommendations of suitable spinal pain care choices. (1) Hollstrom & Associates Inc utilizes the well-documented Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management which has a published algorithm of decision-making for patients with pain below the knee and patients with pain that does not 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 backing and proper clinical application build confidence that there is hope to our Largo 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 available to them. Hollstrom & Associates Inc is one of those chiropractors. Beyond chiropractic, broad guidelines for back pain care are available. Are they followed? A recent 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 bit less than a third of said adults with low back pain reported undergoing chiropractic and/or PT/OT with a rise to a third after the 2016 clinical guidelines were published. (3) This does demonstrate that guidelines help with treatment planning but are not always followed. In Denmark where guidelines for low back pain care are charted 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 reporting 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 abide by guidelines are seemingly global.
CHIROPRACTIC’S ROLE
A group of chiropractic leaders shared 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. Very interesting! Individually, chiropractors described themselves as capable and well-educated spine and musculoskeletal care experts who offered evidence-based care founded on the latest research, clinical expertise, and patient values. They provided patient-centered care that extends to cooperating with other healthcare providers with the best interest of the patient in mind. (5) Using guidelines, chiropractors are confident that they can help their back pain patients with those patient’s best interests in mind.
CONTACT Hollstrom & Associates Inc
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Ted Siciliano on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he describes how he used The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management to relieve a patient dealing with back pain and foot drop.
Make your Largo chiropractic appointment today. Facing a serious episode 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 published guidelines to navigate the way through the task!
