Williamson Chiropractic and Back Pain Relief Expectations via Surgical or Conservative Care
What do you expect from your Williamson chiropractic care of back pain? That is a pivotal question. Research is reporting that it plays a role in back pain treatment outcome whether that treatment is surgical or conservative. Apple Country Chiropractic aims to listen to you and your expectations of our Williamson back pain treatment and present what our treatment’s outcomes have been in practice and in research.
INFLUENTIAL EXPECTATIONS FOR BACK SURGERY OUTCOMES
A new research project scrutinized patient and surgeon expectations of back surgery. Patients expected full relief and improvement of their back pain after lumbar spine surgery. Surgeons expected improvement that ranged from a little to a lot dependant on the patient and his/her specific condition. Whose expectations were met? The surgeons’ expectations. Two years after the back surgery, the patient-reported outcomes met the surgeon’s expectations. The researchers emphasized that effective communication about expectations may well further better outcomes. (1) That is why Apple Country Chiropractic spends time with each Williamson back pain patient early on in care, making sure the source of pain and its treatment plan are well-described. If not, tell us!
AN ACCEPTABLE SYMPTOM STATE
If a patient doesn’t get the relief he/she wanted from back surgery, what is an “acceptable symptom state” for that back pain patient? What can he/she live with? For patients with chronic non-specific low back pain (with or without active discopathy), 54% reported having an acceptable symptom state at 1 month of care. Specifically, patient-reported acceptable symptoms involved these: 47.5 for lumbar pain, 30.5 for radicular pain, 39.3 for disability, 10.0 for anxiety, and 6.7 for depression. (2) Apple Country Chiropractic realizes no pain is the preferred state and is ready to talk with our Williamson chiropractic patients their options and possible outcomes.
DECIDING ON TREATMENT OPTIONS
Deciding whether to have back surgery is a big decision. Evidence-based medicine sees that the patient at the center of care. What is the patient perspective of this care? How is the patient perspective regarded in treatment planning and decision making among available options? A new paper pointed out that the patient’s social, psychological, and other non-clinical characteristics must be taken into account in planning care. (3) One factor in the back-surgery decision that reportedly impacts the decision and the outcome expectation is opioid use. Lower dose and shorter-time-taking opioid use patients expected more complete improvement compared with non-users. They also had higher expectations of positive outcome than higher-dose opioid patients. (4) For many patients, the prospect of work is goal of back pain treatment which is affirming according to a new report on how back pain patient recovery expectations sway clinical outcomes. A review of 60 studies found that a patient’s recovery expectations are probably strongly associated with future work participation. (5) Apple Country Chiropractic applies effective, nonsurgical treatment of back pain to meet patient expectations once the research on outcomes for other back pain sufferers is described and understood. Williamson chiropractic care keeps the back pain patient at its center.
CONTACT Apple Country Chiropractic
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Anthony Galante on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he explained how Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management and chiropractic treatment helped manage back pain for a patient who was absolutely positive about not wanting back surgery.
Set your next Williamson chiropractic visit soon. Apple Country Chiropractic wants to know your answer to the question of your expectations for our treatment so that we can both be happy with the outcome!
