In our Redondo Beach office, we see plenty of people who are struggling with back pain, and some of these people have been informed they might need surgery to recover. Thankfully, Dr. Vinick has helped many people get relief without the need for any type of surgical procedure. The scientific research confirms the results we see in our office. One research study published in the journal Spine found that seeing a chiropractor as your first move in dealing with your back pain may actually keep you out of the operating room.
In this report, medical researchers from Dartmouth analyzed data from about 1,900 workers from Washington state who first saw either an orthopedic surgeon or a chiropractic doctor for their low back issues. They then looked at three years' worth of follow-up medical records to find out whether the patients wound up having back surgery in an effort to correct the issue.
What the researchers found was that 42.7% of the men and women who first consulted with a surgeon for their back pain 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 remarkable outcomes. Seeing a chiropractor drastically reduces 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 take into account this important detail: this study was conducted by orthopedic surgeons from Dartmouth College, and printed in the world's most prestigious medical journal on spinal injuries.
The Problems with Surgery
Any surgical procedure has risks, but a major downside related to spinal surgery is that there is a very high rate of failure. In an important review 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. Vinick is convinced that surgery should be the absolute last resort for treating back pain. Chiropractic care works to restore your spine to its normal function--without high-risk surgery or drugs--and many studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of chiropractic for back pain.
If you live in Redondo Beach and you need relief for your back pain, give our practice a call today at (310) 375-4325 for a consultation or an appointment. We'll help get you back on the road to a pain-free life!
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