What expectations do you have of your
Largo chiropractic care of back pain? That is a key question. Research
reports that that questions of expectations has a role in back pain treatment outcome be the
treatment surgical or conservative. Hollstrom & Associates Inc aspires
to listen to you and your expectations of our Largo back
pain treatment and present the outcomes of our treatment
documented in practice and in
research.
INFLUENTIAL EXPECTATIONS FOR BACK SURGERY OUTCOMES
A new research project examined
patient and surgeon expectations of back surgery. Patients expected full
relief and improvement of their back pain after lumbar spine surgery. Surgeons
expected improvement that ranged from a little to a lot dependant on the patient and his/her specific issues. Whose
expectations were met? The surgeons’
expectations. Two years after the back surgery, the outcomes
reported by patients met the surgeon’s expectations.
The researchers stressed that effective communication about expectations
may well advance better outcomes. (1) That is
why Hollstrom & Associates Inc spends time with each Largo
back pain patient early on in care, ensuring
that the source of pain and its treatment plan are well-explained.
If not, ask us!
AN ACCEPTABLE SYMPTOM STATE
If original
patient expectations aren’t met with back surgery,
what is an “acceptable symptom state” for that back pain patient? What can he/she live with? For patients with chronic non-specific low back pain (with or
without active discopathy), 54% reported having an acceptable symptom
state at 1 month of care. Specifically, patient-reported acceptable symptoms included: 47.5 for lumbar pain, 30.5 for radicular pain, 39.3 for
disability, 10.0 for anxiety, and 6.7 for depression. (2) Hollstrom & Associates Inc realizes no pain is the preferred state and is ready to discuss
with our Largo chiropractic patients their options and possible
outcomes.
DECIDING ON TREATMENT OPTIONS
Deciding
whether to have back surgery is a big decision. Evidence-based medicine views
the patient as being the center of care. What is
the patient perspective of this care? How is the patient perspective taken
into consideration in treatment planning and choosing from available options? A new paper indicated that the patient’s social, psychological, and other non-clinical
characteristics must be considered in planning care. (3)
One factor in the back-surgery decision that reportedly influences
the decision and the outcome expectation is opioid use. Lower dose and shorter-time-taking
opioid use patients expected more complete improvement compared
with non-users. They also had higher
expectations of positive outcome than higher-dose opioid patients. (4) For a
lot of patients, the prospect of work is goal of back pain treatment which is encouraging
according to this new report on how back pain patient recovery
expectations sway clinical outcomes. A review of
60 studies reported that a patient’s recovery expectations are
probably strongly associated with future work participation. (5) Hollstrom & Associates Inc employs
effective, nonsurgical treatment of back pain to meet patient expectations once the research on outcomes for other back pain
sufferers is presented and understood. Largo chiropractic care keeps the back pain patient at its center.
CONTACT Hollstrom & Associates Inc
Check out this PODCAST
with Dr. Anthony Galante on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr.
Michael Johnson as he described how Cox®
Technic System of Spinal Pain Management and chiropractic treatment assisted
in the management of back pain for a patient who was adamant about not wanting back surgery.
Set your next Largo
chiropractic visit soon. Hollstrom & Associates Inc invites you to ponder and answer the question of your
expectations for our treatment so that we can both be happy
with the outcome!