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Chiropractic Care of a Female Veteran After Cervical Total Disk Replacement: A Case Report

By |May 7, 2023|Chiropractic Care, Chronic Neck Pain, Radiculopathy, Veterans|

Chiropractic Care of a Female Veteran After Cervical Total Disk Replacement: A Case Report

The Chiro.Org Blog


SOURCE:   J Chiropractic Medicine 2022 (Mar); 21 (1): 60–65

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Michael Mortenson DC, Anna Montgomery MPH, Glenn Buttermann MD

Whole Health Department,
Fargo VA Healthcare System,
Fargo, North Dakota.



Objective:   The purpose of this case study is to describe chiropractic care of the cervical spine for a patient who previously underwent cervical total disk replacement (CTDR) of the C5–6 and C6–7 disks.

Clinical features:   A 42–year-old female veteran of the U.S. Army presented to a Veterans Affairs chiropractic clinic with chronic cervical pain and radiculopathy. She had previously undergone CTDR surgery of the C5–6 disk 9 years earlier, but the pain had become severe and radicular symptoms had returned in the upper left extremity. Imaging taken before the chiropractic referral demonstrated significant joint space narrowing and disk herniation of the C6–7 disk with protrusion to the left side.

Intervention and outcome:   The patient received spinal manipulative therapy, trigger-point therapy, and manual traction to the cervical spine. However, these treatments were not effective in reducing her cervical pain and radiculopathy. She then opted for CTDR of the C6–7 disk. After surgery, the patient reported that radicular symptoms were mostly relieved and cervical pain had decreased by 50%. After 6 additional spinal manipulative therapy treatments, she reported having no neurologic symptoms and that her pain had decreased more than 70% from presurgery levels.

Conclusion:   This case report is the first reported example of chiropractic care after cervical total disk replacement (CTDR) within an integrated health care environment. The patient’s cervical pain and radiculopathy improved with CTDR along with postsurgical chiropractic care.

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CHRONIC NECK PAIN Section and the:

NON-PHARMACOLOGIC THERAPY Section and the:

CHIROPRACTIC CARE FOR VETERANS Section

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Chiropractic Clinical Outcomes Among Older Adult Male Veterans With Chronic Lower Back Pain: A Retrospective Review of Quality-Assurance Data

By |May 6, 2023|Chiropractic Care, Chiropractic Management, Veterans|

Chiropractic Clinical Outcomes Among Older Adult Male Veterans With Chronic Lower Back Pain: A Retrospective Review of Quality-Assurance Data

The Chiro.Org Blog


SOURCE:   J Chiropractic Medicine 2022 (Jun); 21 (2): 77–82

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Brian A. Davis DC, Andrew S. Dunn DC, MS, MEd, Derek J. Golley DC, MS, Dave R. Chicoine DC, MS

Chiropractic Department,
VA Western New York Healthcare System,
Buffalo, New York



FROM:   Military.com 2019


Objective:   The purpose of this study was to determine whether a sample of older adult male U.S. veterans demonstrated clinically and statistically significant improvement in chronic lower back pain on validated outcome measures after a short course of chiropractic care.

Methods:   We performed a retrospective review of a quality-assurance data set of outcome metrics for male veterans, aged 65 to 89 years, who had chronic low back pain, defined as pain in the lower back region present for at least 3 months before evaluation. We included those who received chiropractic management from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2018. Paired t tests were used to compare outcomes after 4 treatments on both a numeric rating scale (NRS) and the Back Bournemouth Questionnaire (BBQ). The minimum clinically important difference (MCID) was set at 30% change from baseline.

Results:   There were 217 individuals who met the inclusion criteria. The mean NRS score change from baseline was 2.2 points, representing a 34.1% reduction (t = 13.5, P < .001). The mean score change for BBQ was 14.7 points, representing a 35.9% reduction (t = 16.7, P < .001). The percentage of participants reaching the MCID for the NRS was 57% (n = 124) and for the BBQ was 59% (n = 126), with 41% (n = 90) of the sample reaching the MCID for both the NRS and BBQ.

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NON-PHARMACOLOGIC THERAPY Section and the:

CHIROPRACTIC CARE FOR VETERANS Section

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Three Patterns of Spinal Manipulative Therapy for Back Pain and Their Association With Imaging Studies, Injection Procedures, and Surgery: A Cohort Study of Insurance Claims

By |April 29, 2023|Chiropractic Management, Initial Provider, Low Back Pain|

Three Patterns of Spinal Manipulative Therapy for Back Pain and Their Association With Imaging Studies, Injection Procedures, and Surgery: A Cohort Study of Insurance Claims

The Chiro.Org Blog


SOURCE:   J Manipulative Physiol Ther 2021 (Nov); 44 (9): 683–689
Brian R. Anderson, DC, MPH, MS, PhD, Steve W. McClellan, MS

Palmer Center for Chiropractic Research,
Palmer College of Chiropractic,
Davenport, IA.



FROM:  
Houweling, JMPT 2015
   Liliedahl, JMPT 2010


Objective:   The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between procedures and care patterns in back pain episodes by analyzing health insurance claims.

Methods:   We performed a retrospective cohort study of insurance claims data from a single Fortune 500 company. The 3 care patterns we analyzed were initial spinal manipulative therapy, delayed spinal manipulative therapy, and no spinal manipulative therapy. The 3 procedures analyzed were imaging studies, injection procedures, and back surgery. We considered “escalated care” to be any claims with diagnostic imaging, injection procedures, or back surgery. Modified-Poisson regression modeling was used to determine relative risk of escalated care.

Results:   There were 83,025 claims that were categorized into 10 372 unique patient first episodes. Spinal manipulative therapy was present in 2,943 episodes (28%). Initial spinal manipulation was present in 2,519 episodes (24%), delayed spinal manipulation was present in 424 episodes (4%), and 7,429 (72%) had no evidence of spinal manipulative therapy. The estimated relative risk, adjusted for age, sex, and risk score, for care escalation (eg, imaging, injections, or surgery) was 0.70 (95% confidence interval 0.65–0.75, P < .001) for initial spinal manipulation and 1.22 (95% confidence interval 1.10–1.35, P < .001) for delayed spinal manipulation with no spinal manipulation used as the reference group.

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LOW BACK PAIN Section and the:

INITIAL PROVIDER/FIRST CONTACT Section

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Spinal Pain, Chronic Health Conditions and Health Behaviors: Data from the 2016-2018 National Health Interview Survey

By |April 16, 2023|Chronic Neck Pain, Chronic Spinal Pain, Low Back Pain|

Spinal Pain, Chronic Health Conditions and Health Behaviors: Data from the 2016-2018 National Health Interview Survey

The Chiro.Org Blog


SOURCE:   Int J Environ Res Public Health 2023 (Apr 3); 20 (7): 5369

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Katie de Luca, Patricia Tavares, Haiou Yang, Eric L Hurwitz, Bart N Green, Hannah Dale, Scott Haldeman

Discipline of Chiropractic,
School of Health, Medical and Applied Science,
CQ University,
Brisbane, QLD 4701, Australia.



FROM:   J Pain Res. 2021


Spinal pain and chronic health conditions are highly prevalent, burdensome, and costly conditions, both in the United States and globally. Using cross-sectional data from the 2016 through 2018 National Health Interview Survey (n = 26,926), we explored associations between spinal pain and chronic health conditions and investigated the influence that a set of confounders may have on the associations between spinal pain and chronic health conditions. Variance estimation method was used to compute weighted descriptive statistics and measures of associations with multinomial logistic regression models. All four chronic health conditions significantly increased the prevalence odds of spinal pain; cardiovascular conditions by 58%, hypertension by 40%, diabetes by 25% and obesity by 34%, controlling for all the confounders.

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LOW BACK PAIN Section and the:

CHRONIC NECK PAIN Section and the:

SPINAL PAIN MANAGEMENT Section

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The Perceived Barriers and Facilitators for Chiropractic Care in Older Adults with Low Back Pain; Insights from a Qualitative Exploration in a Dutch Context

By |April 13, 2023|Chiropractic Management, Low Back Pain, Medicare|

The Perceived Barriers and Facilitators for Chiropractic Care in Older Adults with Low Back Pain; Insights from a Qualitative Exploration in a Dutch Context

The Chiro.Org Blog


SOURCE:   PLoS One 2023 (Apr 12); 18 (4): e0283661

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Lobke P. De la Ruelle, Annemarie de Zoete, Cornelius Myburgh, Hella E. Brandt, Sidney M. Rubinstein

Department of Health Sciences,
Faculty of Science,
Amsterdam Movement Sciences,
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam,
Amsterdam, The Netherlands.



Background:   Understanding care seeking behaviour is vital to enabling access to care. In the context of low back pain (LBP), chiropractors offer services to patients of all ages. Currently, geriatric sub-populations tend to be under-investigated, despite the disproportionate effects of LBP on older adults. In the Netherlands, the chiropractic profession is relatively unknown and therefore, generally speaking, is not considered as the first choice for conservative musculoskeletal primary health care. The aim of this paper was to explore the experiences of older adults with LBP, seeking chiropracic care for the first time, in order to identify perceived barriers and facilitators in this process.

Methods:   Stage 1: Participants 56 years of age and older with chronic LBP who either sought or did not seek chiropractic care were interviewed to provide detailed information on the factors that promoted or impeded care-seeking behaviour. A purposive sampling strategy was used to recruit participants through a network of researchers, chiropractors and other healthcare professionals offering musculoskeletal health care services. Individuals with underlying pathology, previous surgery for LBP, or insufficient mastery of the Dutch language were excluded. Data were collected until saturation was reached and thematically analysed. Stage 2: To further explore the themes, a focus group interview was conducted with a provider stakeholder group consisting of:two physiotherapists, a nurse practitioner, a geriatrician, and a chiropractor. All interviews were conducted online, voice recorded, and transcribed verbatim.

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MEDICARE Section and the:

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Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Displays the Structural and Biochemical Effects of Spinal Manipulative Therapy in Lumbar Discogenic Pain: A Case Report

By |April 12, 2023|Chiropractic Management, Disc Derangement|

Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Displays the Structural and Biochemical Effects of Spinal Manipulative Therapy in Lumbar Discogenic Pain: A Case Report

The Chiro.Org Blog


SOURCE:   Research Square (Apr 4, 2023)


Jessica F Billham, Erika Evans Roland, Matthew F. Gornet, Kelly Brinkman, Francine Schranck, Jim Cox, Norman W. Kettner

Logan University
Chesterfield, MO, US



The Vertebral Disc
FROM:
Bioengineering 2022


INTRODUCTION:   We report utility of magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) in identifying the intervertebral disc (IVD) as a pain generator, describe the contemporary pathophysiology underlying biochemical and structural components of discogenic low back pain (DLBP), and exhibit therapeutic responses to spinal manipulation.

CLINICAL FEATURES:   A 29-year old man presented with uncomplicated low back pain (LBP). The nonspecific presentation and clinical exam findings were consistent with non-specific LBP with the IVD as likely pain generator.

INTERVENTION AND OUTCOMES:   Conventional magnetic resonance imaging showed findings of IVD degeneration including Modic Type 1 changes consistent with a diagnosis of DLBP. MRS was utilized for structural and biochemical analysis of the IVDs. Altered spectral features confirmed a DLBP diagnosis. The patient underwent 12 Cox Flexion Distraction treatments at a chiropractic teaching clinic. Follow-up MRS revealed improved IVD spectral features including decreased biochemical pain markers and increased glycoprotein biosynthesis suggesting improved IVD structural integrity.

CONCLUSION:   We report the first utilization of MRS to quantify structural integrity and biochemical pain profile of the IVD in a conservatively managed DLBP patient. Findings of this case suggest spinal manipulative therapy in DLBP management may improve the structural integrity of IVDs and alter pain biochemistry.

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LOW BACK PAIN Section and the:

DISC HERNIATION & CHIROPRACTIC Section

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