What expectations do you have of your
Manahawkin chiropractic care of back pain? That question is huge. Research
is reporting that it plays
a role in back pain treatment outcome be the
treatment surgical or conservative. Manahawkin Chiropractic Center aspires
to listen to you and your expectations of our Manahawkin back
pain treatment and present the outcomes of our treatment
documented in practice and in
research.
INFLUENTIAL EXPECTATIONS FOR BACK SURGERY OUTCOMES
A new research project examined
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 depending
on the patient and his/her specific condition. Whose
expectations were met? The surgeons’
expectations. Two years after the back surgery, the outcomes
reported by patients met the surgeon’s expectations.
The researchers stressed that effective communication about expectations
may well further better outcomes. (1) That is
why Manahawkin Chiropractic Center spends time with each Manahawkin
back pain patient at the beginning of 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 does not 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) Manahawkin Chiropractic Center appreciates that no pain is the preferred state and is prepared to discuss
with our Manahawkin 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 taken
into consideration in treatment planning and choosing from available options? A new paper indicated that the patient’s social, psychological, and other non-clinical
characteristics must be considered in planning care. (3)
One issue 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 a
lot of 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 affect clinical outcomes. A review of
60 studies found that a patient’s recovery expectations are
probably strongly associated with future work participation. (5) Manahawkin Chiropractic Center applies
effective, nonsurgical treatment of back pain to meet patient expectations once the research on outcomes for other back pain
sufferers is described and absorbed. Manahawkin chiropractic care keeps the back pain patient at its center.
CONTACT Manahawkin Chiropractic Center
Listen to this PODCAST
with Dr. Anthony Galante on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr.
Michael Johnson as he described how Cox®
Technic System of Spinal Pain Management and chiropractic treatment assisted
in the management of back pain for a patient who was adamant about not wanting back surgery.
Set your next Manahawkin
chiropractic visit soon. Manahawkin Chiropractic Center wants to know your answer to the question of your
expectations for our treatment so that we can both be happy
with the outcome!