Back surgery isn’t always necessary to get rid
of back pain. Adogwa and colleagues reported that 0.8% of 497,822 lumbar spinal stenosis or
spondylolisthesis patients required back surgery. (1) What do the other 99% need?
Pain relief. An understanding of their condition.
Gentle treatment. A robust treatment plan. Minster Chiropractic Center has
such a plan for Minster
post-back-surgery, failed back surgery syndrome, continued back pain (choose
your term!) patients that integrates safe, doctor-delivered,
patient-engaged chiropractic care via The Cox® Technic System of
Spinal Pain Management.
BACK PAIN RELIEF AFTER BACK SURGERY
Certain researchers in the medical profession want to abandon
their term “failed back surgical syndrome” for “persistent
spinal pain syndrome type 2.” For such patients with post-surgical
pain after a laminectomy, discectomy, or fusion who sought
chiropractic spinal manipulation for relief, numeric pain rating scale (0-10/worst-pain
scale) scores dropped from 6.6 to 0.6 and Oswestry Disability
Index (0 to 100/worst-pain scale) scores fell from 43.8
to 2.4. At 12 months’ post chiropractic care (multi-modal
chiropractic care with flexion-distraction among the treatments),
48% maintained their improvement, 42% experienced
a recurrence, 10% were unavailable for follow
up. (2) A retrospective review of 32 cases of post-lumbar spine surgery pain
patients noted numeric pain score changes from 6.4 to
2.3 (on a 10 point scale) for a 4.1 decrease in pain. No adverse
events were seen for any of the postsurgical
patients in this review with the mean
number of treatments being 14. Chiropractic care consisted
of the delivery of Cox® flexion distraction. (3) A prospective study of 69
post-surgical continued pain patients who still had back pain following
back surgery were treated by 15 chiropractors. All followed
protocols of the Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management. 50% or more
relief of pain at the end of active care was recorded
for 81% of the patients. The mean number of days of care was 49 days;treatments
was 11. At 2 years follow up, 56
patients were available. 78.6% of them had continued pain
relief greater than 50%. Mean pain relief at end of care was 71.6
and 70 at 2-years follow-up. 43% had not pursued more
care in 2 years. 32 patients had: 17 of them underwent
chiropractic manipulation, 8 had PT, exercise, injections, and medication; 5 went
through further surgery. (Bottomline: Greater than 50% relief of back
pain following back surgery was reached for 81% of
patients in 11 visits over 49 days.) (4) Minster back pain sufferers
who have already experienced back surgery may welcome
these outcomes for themselves! Minster Chiropractic Center is prepared to help.
UNDERSTANDING OF BIOMECHANICAL CHANGES
To commit to a plan, all involved must know what is going to happen to affect a change in pain. A study measured the short-term
effect of flexion distraction spinal manipulation on various spinal elements
of patients with lumbar degenerative disc
disease (DDD). Intervertebral disc height was increased from
6.32 to 6.93. Back pain reduced from 69.17 to 48.48. Lumbar
spine mobility improved as it changed from 17.37 to 12.69 (bent
over with fingers stretching toward the floor). Passive straight
leg raise improved from 46.94 to 56.01. (5) These are desired
and documented changes with gentle, safe Minster chiropractic care.
CONTACT Minster Chiropractic Center
Listen to this PODCAST
with Dr. David Atiyeh on The
Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he
illustrates the relief with The Cox® Technic System of Spinal
Pain Management for a patient who’d gone through
back surgery and still experienced back pain.
Make your Minster chiropractic
appointment today. Back surgery isn’t the only choice
for many with back pain. And for those who have already undergone
back surgery, the non-surgical approach with chiropractic may ultimately
deliver the pain relief you want.