What do you expect from your
Sitka chiropractic care of back pain? That is a key question. Research
reports that it has a role in back pain treatment outcome whether that treatment is surgical or conservative. Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka aims
to hear your expectations of our Sitka back
pain treatment and share what our treatment’s outcomes have been in practice and in
research.
INFLUENTIAL EXPECTATIONS FOR BACK SURGERY OUTCOMES
A recent research project scrutinized
patient and surgeon expectations of back surgery. Patients expected complete
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 issues. Whose
expectations were met? The surgeons’
expectations. A couple years after the back surgery, the patient-reported outcomes met the surgeon’s expectations.
The researchers stressed that effective communication about expectations
may well advance better outcomes. (1) That’s
why Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka spends time with each Sitka
back pain patient early on in care, making sure the source of pain and its treatment plan are well-explained.
If not, ask us!
AN ACCEPTABLE SYMPTOM STATE
If a patient doesn’t experience
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% stated 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) Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka knows no pain is the preferred state and is prepared to talk
with our Sitka chiropractic patients their options and potential
outcomes.
DECIDING ON TREATMENT OPTIONS
The question of back surgery is a big issue. Evidence-based medicine views
the patient as being 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 recent paper indicated 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 opposed to 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 positive
according to this new report on how back pain patient recovery
expectations impact clinical outcomes. A review of
60 studies reported that a patient’s recovery expectations are
probably strongly associated with future work participation. (5) Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka employs
effective, nonsurgical treatment of back pain to meet patient expectations once the research on outcomes for other back pain
sufferers is presented and absorbed. Sitka chiropractic care keeps the back pain patient at its center.
CONTACT Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka
Check out 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 adamant about not wanting back surgery.
Schedule your next Sitka
chiropractic visit today. Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka wants to know your answer to the question of your
expectations for our treatment so that we can both be satisfied
with the outcome!