Avoiding the Surgeon's Knife with Chiropractic in Brunswick GA

In our Brunswick, GA Chiropractic office, we see a large number of people who are troubled with back pain, and some of these people have been informed they might need surgery to recover. Fortunately, Dr. Halverson has helped many people get relief without the need for any type of surgery. The scientific research confirms the results we see in our office. One study published in the academic journal Spine found that consulting with a chiropractor as your first move in dealing with your back problems may actually keep you off of the operating table.

In this report, medical experts from Dartmouth reviewed data from 1,885 workers from Washington state who first saw either a surgeon or a chiropractic doctor for their back pain issues. They then looked at three years' worth of follow-up medical data to find out whether the patients ended up having back surgery in an attempt to correct the problem.

The Results

What the researchers determined was that about 43% of the men and women who first consulted with a surgeon for their back problems ended up in surgery in that 3-year time span, 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 impressive findings. Seeing a chiropractor drastically reduces 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 take into account this important detail: this study was carried out by orthopedic surgeons from Dartmouth College, and published in the world's most prestigious medical journal on spinal injuries.

Surgery: The Last Resort in Brunswick GA

Any surgery has risks, but a serious problem linked 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. Halverson 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 the need of risky surgery or drugs--and many scientific studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of chiropractic for back pain.

If you live in Brunswick, GA and you need care for your back pain, give our office a call today at (912) 262-9735 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.