Johnson Chiropractic Treats the Patient Not the MRI
Why do patients have back surgery? Pain. What conditions give them the most trouble that leads them to back surgery? Spinal stenosis. Spondylolisthesis. What symptoms do they want gone? Butt pain. Leg pain. Back pain. Johnson Chiropractic is here as your first stop to avoid back surgery or, for some, the last stop. For many back-related-pain patients, Richmond chiropractic care does the trick and helps them avoid back surgery.
BACK PAIN SYMPTOMS
Back pain patients describe all types of painful and irritating symptoms: leg pain, numb toe(s), painful thighs, gluteal pain. (The adage that something is a “pain in the butt” is a literal portrayal of some back pain patients’ pain! That pain is a more radicular issue than degenerative change of facet joints. (1)) And lumbar spinal stenosis is the most usual reason for back surgery in the US for adults. A study of stenosis patients who have endured at least 3 years of suffering showed that manual therapy and individualized exercise helped the most patients get more than 30% improvement in symptoms and 20% in function. (2) Our use of the Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management seeks at least 50% relief in 30 days with lots of patients realizing 60%, 70%, 80% and 90% sooner than that! Johnson Chiropractic knows Richmond back pain sufferers who would celebrate with non-surgical relief like that!
BACK SURGERY: NECESSITY, COST AND IMAGING
Just how many back-pain patients with spinal stenosis or spondylolisthesis need surgery? 0.8%. This comes from a study of 497,822 patients! The surgeon authors of this paper suggested doing decompression surgery without or with fusion earlier to lower the expense of non-operative treatment. (3) Oh my! The cost of a fusion in 2006 was $40,000 (4) and $80,000 to $100,000 in 2013, making back pain the leading cause of disability in the world before 290 other conditions. (5) [Chiropractic is reported to be just 2.9% of the cost of back pain management. (6)] Over-imaging has added expense to back pain management: 1 in 4 (25%) of patients who go to a primary care doctors and 1 in 3 (33%) who go to the emergency room got imaging. (7) And how does imaging enhance patient care and clinical outcome? Good question. There is no correlation between MRI findings for stenosis and the severity of pain, quality of life, depression or anxiety. (8, 9) What does boost patient care and clinical outcome? Collaboration between physicians – surgical and non-surgical spine experts – helps chronic back pain patients recover in terms of pain as well as socially and mentally. (10) Johnson Chiropractic invites such collaboration with you and your healthcare team! We want you to feel better!
CONTACT Johnson Chiropractic
Listen to this PODCAST by Dr. Kurt Olding on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson. Dr. Olding discusses lumbar spinal stenosis care with Cox® Technic that let a woman continue doing what she loved!
Schedule a non-surgical Richmond chiropractic care appointment with Johnson Chiropractic today. Physical, mental and emotional pain relief may be relieved and back surgery dodged with gentle, safe chiropractic care at Johnson Chiropractic where patient care revolves around the patient not the MRI!
