Back surgery isn’t always required to relieve back pain. Adogwa and colleagues reported that less than 1% of 497,822 lumbar spinal stenosis or
spondylolisthesis patients required back surgery. (1) What do the other 99% require?
Pain relief. Reassurance and knowledge of their condition.
Gentle treatment. A robust treatment plan. Johnson Chiropractic has
such a plan for Richmond
post-back-surgery, failed back surgery syndrome, continued back pain (choose
your term!) patients that integrates safe, doctor-delivered,
patient-involved 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 descriptive phrase “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 pursued
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 dropped 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% had
a recurrence, 10% were unavailable for follow
up. (2) A retrospective review of 32 cases of post-lumbar spine surgery pain
patients documented 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 documented for any of the postsurgical
patients in this review with the mean
number of treatments being 14. Chiropractic care included the delivery of Cox® flexion distraction. (3) A prospective study of 69
post-surgical continued pain patients who reported back pain after
back surgery were treated by 15 chiropractors. All delivered care via
protocols of the Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management. 50% or greater
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 and 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 sought more
care in 2 years. 32 patients had: 17 of them went through
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 realized for 81% of
patients in 11 visits over 49 days.) (4) Richmond back pain sufferers
who have already had back surgery may welcome
these outcomes for themselves! Johnson Chiropractic is prepared to help.
UNDERSTANDING OF BIOMECHANICAL CHANGES
To stick to a plan, all involved must understand what is going to happen to affect a change in pain. A study assessed the short-term
effect of flexion distraction spinal manipulation on various spinal aspects
of patients who have 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 reaching for the floor). Passive straight
leg raise increased from 46.94 to 56.01. (5) These are desired
and documented changes with gentle, safe Richmond chiropractic care.
CONTACT Johnson Chiropractic
Listen to this PODCAST
with Dr. David Atiyeh on The
Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he
describes the relief with The Cox® Technic System of Spinal
Pain Management for a patient who’d undergone
back surgery and still had back pain.
Schedule your Richmond chiropractic
appointment soon. Back surgery is not the only choice
for many with back pain. And for those who have previously undergone
back surgery, the non-surgical approach with chiropractic may finally
deliver the pain relief you desire.