Want To Avoid Surgery? See A Chiropractor

In our Cary chiropractic clinic, we see many people who are struggling with back pain, and some of these folks have been informed they might need surgery to recover. Fortunately, Swiss Spine Clinic has helped many people get relief without the need for any type of surgical treatment. The science confirms the success we see in our office. One research study published in the journal Spine found that seeing a chiropractor as your first move in overcoming with your back pain may actually keep you out of the operating room.

In this scientific study, medical researchers from Dartmouth reviewed statistics from 1,885 workers from the state of Washington who first saw either a surgeon or a chiropractor for their low back issues. They then examined three years' worth of follow-up medical data to ascertain whether the subjects ended up having back surgery in an attempt to treat the problem.

What the researchers determined was that 42.7% of the individuals who first saw a surgeon for their back problems ended up having a surgical procedure in that 3-year time span, whereas only 1.5% of those who first consulted with 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 remarkable outcomes. Consulting with a chiropractor considerably reduces your odds of having back surgery, plus the chiropractic patients in this scientific study "had lower odds of chronic work disability" and they also had fewer expensive MRI tests.

Let's also take into consideration this important point: this study was carried out by orthopedic surgeons from Dartmouth College, and published in the world's most distinguished medical publication on spinal injury.

The Problems with Surgery

Any surgical procedure has risks, but a major downside related to spinal surgery is that there's a very high failure rate. In an important analysis 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, Swiss Spine Clinic believes that surgery should be the absolute last resort for treating back pain. Chiropractic care works to restore your spine to its normal function--without the need of high-risk surgery or drugs--and many studies have established the efficacy of chiropractic for back pain.

If you live in Cary and you need relief for your back pain, give our practice a call today at (919) 589-0909 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.