Chiropractic Is a Natural Alternative to Back Surgery

In our Rockville practice, we see many patients who are troubled with back pain, and some of these patients have been informed they might need surgery to recover. Thankfully, Dr. Aazami 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 office. One research study published in the academic journal Spine found that consulting with a chiropractor as your first step in dealing with your back problems may actually keep you out of the operating room.

In this research study, medical experts from Dartmouth analyzed data from about 1,900 workers from the state of Washington who first saw either an orthopedic surgeon or a chiropractor for their low back issues. They then used three years' worth of follow-up medical records to determine whether the subjects ended up having back surgery in an attempt to correct the problem.

What the authors discovered was that 42.7% of the people who first saw a surgeon for their back problems ended up in surgery in that 3-year time frame, 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 impressive results. Seeing a chiropractor dramatically decreases 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 account this important point: this study was conducted by orthopedic surgeons from Dartmouth College, and published in the world's most prestigious medical publication on spinal injuries.

The Risks of Surgery

Any surgery has risks, but a serious problem linked to spine surgery is that there's a very high rate of failure. 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. Aazami believes that surgery should be the absolute last choice for treating back pain. Chiropractic works to restore your spine to its normal function--without the need of high-risk surgery or drugs--and many studies have confirmed the usefulness of chiropractic for back pain.

If you live in Rockville and you need care for your back pain, give our office a call today at (240) 221-2666 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.