Avoiding the Surgeon's Knife with Chiropractic

In our Jenks office, we see a large number of patients who are suffering from back pain, and a few of these folks have been informed they might need surgery to recover. Fortunately, Dr. Bogan has helped many people get pain relief without the need for any type of surgical procedure. The scientific literature confirms the success we see in our office. One study published in the academic journal Spine found that consulting with a chiropractor as your first move in overcoming with your back problems may actually keep you off of the operating table.

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

What the authors discovered was that 42.7% of the men and women who first consulted with a surgeon for their back issues ended up having a surgical procedure in that 3-year time span, whereas only 1.5 percent 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. Consulting with a chiropractor dramatically decreases your odds of getting 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 consideration this important point: this study was performed by orthopedic surgeons from Dartmouth College, and printed in the world's most influential medical journal on spinal injuries.

The Risks of Surgery

Any surgery has risks, but a serious downside associated with spine surgery is that there's a very high failure rate. 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. Bogan is convinced that surgery should be the absolute last resort for treating back pain. Chiropractic works to restore your spine to its normal function--without high-risk surgery or drugs--and many research studies have documented the efficacy of chiropractic for back pain.

If you live in Jenks and you need care for your back pain, give our practice a call today at (918) 832-7880 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.