Chiropractic Therapy Is a Natural Alternative to Back Surgery

Arlington How to Avoid Back Surgery

In our Arlington chiropractic clinic, we see plenty of people who are troubled with back pain, and a few of these people have been advised they might need surgery to recover. Fortunately, Dr. Ernst has helped many people get relief without the need for any type of surgical procedure. The scientific research confirms the success we see in our practice. One research study published in the journal Spine found that consulting with a chiropractor as your first move in overcoming with your back issues may actually keep you off of the operating table.

In this study, medical experts from Dartmouth analyzed data from 1,885 workers from Washington state who first saw either a surgeon or a chiropractor for their low back issues. They then looked at three years' worth of follow-up medical data to find out whether the patients wound up having back surgery in an effort to correct the problem.

What the authors discovered was that about 43% of the patients who first consulted with a surgeon for their back issues ended up with surgery 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 results. Visiting a chiropractor significantly decreases your odds of having 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 consider this important detail: this study was performed by orthopedic surgeons from Dartmouth College, and printed in the world's most distinguished medical journal on spinal injury.

The Risks of Surgery

Any surgery has risks, but a major downside associated with spine 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 experts in 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. Ernst believes that surgery should be the absolute last choice for treating back pain. Chiropractic works to restore your spine to its normal function--without high-risk surgery or drugs--and many research studies have confirmed the usefulness of chiropractic for back pain.

If you live in Arlington and you need care for your back pain, give our office a call today at (360) 659-8464 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.