Want To Avoid Surgery? See A Chiropractor

In our Massillon chiropractic clinic, we see a lot of patients who are struggling with back pain, and a few of these people have been told they might need surgery to recover. Fortunately, Dr. Haycock has helped many people get relief without the need for any type of surgical procedure. The scientific literature agrees with the results we see in our practice. One research study published in the medical journal Spine found that seeing a chiropractor as your first step in dealing with your back pain may literally keep you off of the operating table.

In this report, medical researchers from Dartmouth reviewed statistics from 1,885 workers from the state of Washington who first saw either a surgeon or a chiropractic doctor for their back-related issues. They then used three years' worth of follow-up medical data to determine whether the subjects wound up having back surgery in an attempt to treat the problem.

What the researchers observed was that about 43% of the people who first saw a surgeon for their back problems ended up in surgery in that 3-year time frame, 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 impressive results. Consulting with a chiropractor dramatically decreases 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 keep in mind this important point: this study was conducted by orthopedic surgeons from Dartmouth College, and published in the world's most prestigious medical journal on spinal injuries.

The Risks of Surgery

Any surgery has risks, but a serious downside associated with spinal 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, Dr. Haycock 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 risky surgery or drugs--and many scientific studies have confirmed the usefulness of chiropractic for back pain.

If you live in Massillon and you need care for your back pain, give our practice a call today at (330) 833-2085 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.