What do you expect from your
chiropractic care of Vancouver
back pain? That question is huge. Research
is reporting that it has a role in back pain treatment outcome be the
treatment surgical or conservative. Vancouver Disc Centers aims
to hear your expectations of our Vancouver 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 scrutinized
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 varied from a little to a lot dependant on the patient and his/her specific condition. Can you guess whose expectations were met? The surgeons’
expectations. A couple 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 foster better outcomes. (1) That is
why Vancouver Disc Centers spends time with each Vancouver
back pain patient at the beginning of care, making sure the source of pain and its treatment plan are well-described.
If not, tell us!
AN ACCEPTABLE SYMPTOM STATE
If initial
patient expectations are not met with 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% reported having an acceptable symptom
state at 1 month of care. Specifically, patient-reported acceptable symptoms included: 47.5 for lumbar pain, 30.5 for radicular pain, 39.3 for
disability, 10.0 for anxiety, and 6.7 for depression. (2) Vancouver Disc Centers appreciates that no pain is the preferred state and is ready to talk
with our Vancouver chiropractic patients their options and possible
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 decision making
among 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 factor in the back-surgery decision that reportedly influences
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 a light at the end of the
tunnel which is positive
according to this new report on how back pain patient recovery
expectations sway clinical outcomes. A review of
60 studies found that a patient’s recovery expectations are
probably strongly associated with future work participation. (5) Vancouver Disc Centers employs
effective, nonsurgical care of back pain to meet patient expectations once the research on outcomes for other back pain
sufferers is described and absorbed. Vancouver chiropractic care keeps the back pain patient at its center.
CONTACT Vancouver Disc Centers
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.
Set your next Vancouver
chiropractic visit soon. Vancouver Disc Centers invites you to ponder and answer the question of your
expectations for our treatment so that we can both be satisfied
with the outcome!