Avoid Back Surgery With Chiropractic Treatment

In our State College practice, we see a large number of people who are struggling with back pain, and some of these folks have been told they might need surgery to recover. Thankfully, Drs. Matt & Annie Reyes has helped many people get pain relief without the need for any type of surgery. The scientific literature confirms the success we see in our practice. One research study published in the journal Spine found that seeing a chiropractor as your first step in dealing with your back pain may literally keep you out of the operating room.

In this research study, medical researchers from Dartmouth analyzed data from 1,885 workers from the state of Washington who first saw either an orthopedic surgeon or a chiropractor for their back pain issues. They then looked at three years' worth of follow-up medical records to find out whether the subjects ended up having back surgery in an effort to correct the issue.

What the authors found was that 42.7% of the people who first saw a surgeon for their back problems ended up having a surgical procedure 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 impressive results. Visiting a chiropractor considerably 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 detail: this study was conducted by orthopedic surgeons from Dartmouth College, and printed in the world's most prestigious medical journal on spinal injuries.

Why You Should Avoid Surgery

Any surgery has risks, but a serious downside related to spine surgery is that there's 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, Drs. Matt & Annie Reyes is convinced that surgery should be the absolute last choice for treating back pain. Chiropractic care works to restore your spine to its normal function--without the need of risky surgery or drugs--and many scientific studies have established the usefulness of chiropractic for back pain.

If you live in State College and you need care for your back pain, give our office a call today at (814) 308-9352 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.