Chiropractic Therapy Is a Natural Alternative to Back Surgery

In our Hyattsville, District Heights practice, we see many patients who are dealing with back pain, and some of these folks have been advised they might need surgery to recover. Fortunately, Dr. Aazami has helped many people get pain relief without the need for any type of surgical treatment. The scientific literature confirms the results 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 overcoming with your back problems may actually keep you off of the operating table.

In this study, medical researchers from Dartmouth analyzed statistics 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 information to ascertain whether the patients wound up having back surgery in an effort to correct the issue.

What the researchers discovered was that 42.7% of the people who first saw a surgeon for their back pain ended up with 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 findings. Consulting with a chiropractor significantly 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 consider this important point: this study was performed by orthopedic surgeons from Dartmouth College, and published in the world's most influential medical journal on spinal injuries.

The Risks of Surgery

Any surgical procedure has risks, but a major downside related to spinal surgery is that there is 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. Aazami believes that surgery should be the absolute last choice for treating back pain. Chiropractic care works to restore your spine to its normal function--without risky surgery or drugs--and many scientific studies have demonstrated the efficacy of chiropractic for back pain.

If you live in Hyattsville, District Heights and you need relief for your back pain, give our office a call today at (301) 322-7777 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.