In our Singapore office, we see many patients who are struggling with back pain, and a few of these folks have been advised they might need surgery to recover. Fortunately, Dr. Neil Stakes has helped many people get pain relief without the need for any type of surgical procedure. The scientific research confirms the results we see in our practice. One research study published in the medical journal Spine found that consulting with a chiropractor as your first step in overcoming with your back pain may actually keep you off of the operating table.
In this report, medical professionals from Dartmouth analyzed statistics from 1,885 workers from Washington state who first saw either a surgeon or a chiropractor for their back pain issues. They then examined three years' worth of follow-up medical information to find out whether the patients ended up having back surgery in an attempt to treat the issue.
What the researchers found was that about 43% of the men and women who first consulted with a surgeon for their back pain ended up with surgery in that 3-year time frame, whereas only 1.5% of those who first saw 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 results. Seeing a chiropractor considerably decreases your odds of having 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 point: this study was carried out by orthopedic surgeons from Dartmouth College, and printed in the world's most influential medical publication on spinal injuries.
Surgery: The Last Resort
Any surgical procedure has risks, but a major problem related to spine 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. Neil Stakes believes 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 efficacy of chiropractic for back pain.
If you live in Singapore and you need care for your back pain, give our practice a call today at 62351220 for a consultation or an appointment. We'll help get you back on the road to a pain-free life!
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