Avoiding the Surgeon's Knife with Chiropractic Treatment

In our Downtown St. Louis, MO office, we see plenty of people who are struggling with back pain, and a few of these folks have been advised they might need surgery to recover. Fortunately, Dr. Holland has helped many people get relief without the need for any type of operation. The science agrees with the results we see in our practice. One medical study published in the medical journal Spine found that consulting with a chiropractor as your first step in dealing with your back pain may actually keep you out of the operating room.

In this research study, medical professionals from Dartmouth reviewed statistics from 1,885 workers from the state of Washington who first saw either an orthopedic surgeon or a chiropractor for their low back issues. They then examined three years' worth of follow-up medical data to find out whether the subjects wound up having back surgery in an effort to correct the issue.

What the researchers observed was that about 43% of the patients who first consulted with a surgeon for their back pain ended up having a surgical procedure in that 3-year time span, whereas only 1.5 percent of those who first saw a chiropractor had the same fate. The authors wrote:

"Even after controlling for injury severity and other measures, workers with an initial visit for the injury to a surgeon had almost nine times the odds of receiving lumbar spine surgery compared to those seeing primary care providers, whereas workers whose first visit was to a chiropractor had significantly lower odds of surgery."

These are impressive outcomes. Seeing a chiropractor drastically reduces your odds of getting back surgery, plus the chiropractic patients in this report "had lower odds of chronic work disability" and they also had fewer expensive MRI tests.

Let's also take note this important point: this study was carried out by orthopedic surgeons from Dartmouth College, and published in the world's most influential medical journal on spinal injuries.

The Problems with Surgery

Any surgery has risks, but a major downside related to spinal surgery is that there is a very high rate of failure. In an important review in the European Spine Journal, researchers wrote:

"Failed back surgery is a problem that has become sufficiently widespread to even warrant its own special conferences, with recent reviews reporting failure rates ranging from 5 to 50%."

The authors of this same study concluded:

"It is extremely difficult to identify unequivocal predictor factors that can be used to accurately predict the outcome of surgery."

As a chiropractor, Dr. Holland is convinced that surgery should be the absolute last choice for treating back pain. Chiropractic care works to restore your spine to its normal function--without the need of risky surgery or drugs--and many scientific studies have documented the efficacy of chiropractic for back pain.

If you live in Downtown St. Louis, MO and you need relief for your back pain, give our office a call today at (314) 588-9100 for a consultation or an appointment. We'll help get you back on the road to a pain-free life!

Studies

• Keeney BJ, Fulton-Kehoe D, Turner JA, Wickizer TM, Chan KC, Franklin GM. Early predictors of lumbar spine surgery after occupational back injury: results from a prospective study of workers in Washington State. Spine 2013;38(11):953-964.
• Mannion AF, Elfering A. Predictors of surgical outcome and their assessment. European Spine Journal 2006;15(Suppl 1):S93-S108.