Low Back Pain

Trading Backpacks For Rolling Luggage Fails in German Primary School Study

By Frank M. Painter|December 19, 2010|Backpacks, Books, Low Back Pain, News, Pediatrics|

Trading Backpacks For Rolling Luggage Fails in German Primary School Study

It’s well understood that heavy backpacks are taking a heavy toll (excuse the pun!) on adolescent spines. [1] A recent standing magnetic resonance imaging study by the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of California, at San Diego revealed that: “Increasing backpack loads significantly compressed lumbar disc heights measured in the midline sagittal plane” and that: “student subjects reported significant increases in back pain, associated with increasing backpack loads from 4, to 8, and finally to 12 kgs of carried weight”. (more…)

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Startling New Study Reveals That Back Surgery Fails 74% of the Time

By Frank M. Painter|October 22, 2010|Iatrogenic Injury, Low Back Pain, News|

Startling New Study Reveals That Back Surgery Fails 74% of the Time

The Chiro.Org Blog

A Chiro.Org Editorial

SOURCE: Spine (Phila Pa 1976) 2011 (Feb 15); 36 (4): 320–331

Nguyen TH, Randolph DC, Talmage J, Succop P, Travis R.

From the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics,
Department of Environmental Health,
University of Cincinnati College of Medicine,
Milford, OH

Researchers reviewed records from 1,450 patients in the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation database who had diagnoses of disc degeneration, disc herniation or radiculopathy, a nerve condition that causes tingling and weakness of the limbs. Half of the patients had surgery to fuse two or more vertebrae in hopes of curing low back pain. The other half had no surgery, even though they had comparable diagnoses.

After two years, only 26 percent of those who had surgery had actually returned to work. That’s compared to 67 percent of patients who didn’t have the surgery, even though they had the same exact diagnosis.

That translates to a resounding 74% failure rate! It also suggests that you have a 257% better chance of returning to work IF YOU AVOID SURGERY in the first place!

In another troubling finding, the researchers determined that there was a 41 percent increase in the use of painkillers, particularly opiates, in those who had the surgery. Last year we reported that deaths from addictive painkillers has doubled in the last 10 years. [6]

(more…)

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New Study Finds Chiropractic Care Superior to Family Physician-directed Usual Care

By Frank M. Painter|October 7, 2010|Health Care Reform, Low Back Pain, News, Research|

New Study Finds Chiropractic Care Superior to Family Physician-directed Usual Care

The Chiro.Org Blog

SOURCE: Spine J. 2010 (Oct 2) [Epub ahead of print]

Bishop PB, Quon JA, Fisher CG, Dvorak MF.

International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD), University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. paul.bishop@vch.ca

This newly published (Oct 2) study in Spine Journal compared family physician-directed usual care with evidence-based clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) (which includes reassurance and avoidance of passive treatments, acetaminophen, 4 weeks of lumbar chiropractic spinal manipulative care, and return to work within 8 weeks) on patients with acute low back pain. [1]

Evidence-based clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for the management of patients with acute mechanical low back pain (AM-LBP) have been defined on an international scale. Multicenter clinical trials have demonstrated that most AM-LBP patients do not receive CPG-based treatments. To date, the value of implementing full and exclusively CPG-based treatment remains unclear. To determine if full CPGs-based study care (SC) results in greater improvement in functional outcomes than family physician-directed usual care (UC), a two-arm, parallel design, prospective, randomized controlled clinical trial using blinded outcome assessment was designed. Treatment was administered in a hospital-based spine program outpatient clinic. Patients were assessed by a spine physician, then randomized to SC (reassurance and avoidance of passive treatments, acetaminophen, 4 weeks of lumbar CSMT, and return to work within 8 weeks), or family physician-directed UC, the components of which were recorded. (more…)

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European Guidelines for the Management of Acute and Chronic Nonspecific Low Back Pain in Primary Care

By Frank M. Painter|June 25, 2010|Guidelines, Low Back Pain, News, Unnecessary Surgery|

European Guidelines for the Management of Acute and Chronic Nonspecific Low Back Pain in Primary Care

The Chiro.Org Blog

You will enjoy these recent European evidence-based guidelines for the management of acute and chronic low back pain.

Both the Acute Back Pain Guideline and the
Chronic Back Pain Guideline recommend spinal manipulation
as an effective conservative treatment.

Interestingly, MOST of what’s considered “standard medical treatment” are listed as
Invasive treatments, that should NOT be recommended for non-specific CLBP.

Non-recommended medical treatments include:

Bed rest,

Acupuncture,

intradiscal injections,

epidural corticosteroid injections,

intra-articular (facet) steroid injections,

local facet nerve blocks,

trigger point injections,

prolotherapy,

botulinum toxin,

radiofrequency facet denervation,

intradiscal radiofrequency lesioning,

intradiscal electrothermal therapy,

radiofrequency lesioning of the dorsal root ganglion,

and spinal cord stimulation

(more…)

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Cost-Effectiveness Revisited

By Frank M. Painter|June 14, 2010|Low Back Pain, Neck Pain, News|

Cost-Effectiveness Revisited

The Chiro.Org Blog

SOURCE: The Chiropractic Report

David Chapman-Smith, LL.B (Hons)

As the United States faces the prospect of major reform to its healthcare system a dramatic new expert study from leading US health economists from Mercer Health and Benefits, and Harvard University analyses chiropractic management of back and neck pain and reports:

“Almost half of US patients with persistent back pain” seek chiropractic care.
“Low-back and neck pain are extremely common conditions that consume large amounts of healthcare resources”.
“Effectiveness: chiropractic care is more effective than other modalities for treating low-back and neck pain”.
“Cost-effectiveness: when considering effectiveness and cost together, chiropractic physician care for low-back and neck pain is highly cost-effective, and represents a good value in comparison to medical physician care and to widely accepted cost-effectiveness thresholds”. (more…)

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New Report Finds Chiropractic Is More Effective for Neck and Low Back Complaints

By Frank M. Painter|April 15, 2010|Low Back Pain, Neck Pain, News|

New Report Finds Chiropractic Is More Effective for Neck and Low Back Complaints

The Chiro.Org Blog

Thanks to John Wiens, D.C. for drawing our attention to this study!

This new report, prepared for the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress by the esteemed medical authors Niteesh Choudhry, MD, PHD (Harvard Medical School) and Arnold Milstein, MD, MPH (Mercer health and Benefits), produced these conclusions from the Executive Summary: