Avoiding the Surgeon's Knife with Chiropractic

Avoiding the Surgeon's Knife with Chiropractic

In our Lincoln office, we see a lot of patients who are troubled with back pain, and some of these patients have been told they might need surgery to recover. Fortunately, Dr. Jerrad Swanson DC, FMT, DN1 has helped many people get pain relief without the need for any type of surgical procedure. The scientific research agrees with the success 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 issues may actually keep you off of the operating table.

In this scientific study, medical experts from Dartmouth analyzed data from about 1,900 workers from Washington state who first saw either a surgeon or a chiropractic doctor for their back pain issues. They then examined three years' worth of follow-up medical records to ascertain whether the individuals wound up having back surgery in an attempt to treat the problem.

What the authors found was that 42.7% of the individuals who first consulted with a surgeon for their back issues ended up in surgery in that 3-year time frame, 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 remarkable results. Consulting with a chiropractor considerably decreases your odds of getting back surgery, plus the chiropractic patients in this study "had lower odds of chronic work disability" and they also had fewer expensive MRI tests.

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

Why You Should Avoid Surgery

Any surgical procedure has risks, but a major problem associated with 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, Dr. Jerrad Swanson DC, FMT, DN1 is convinced that surgery should be the absolute last resort for treating back pain. Chiropractic works to restore your spine to its normal function--without the need of risky surgery or drugs--and many research studies have confirmed the efficacy of chiropractic for back pain.

If you live in Lincoln and you need care for your back pain, give our practice a call today at (402) 484-5177 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.