Surgery

Jeff Williams - evidence-based chiropractor

Two Surgeries, Two Outcomes & Cervical Artery Dissection and Spinal Manipulative Therapy

September 14, 2023 chiropracticforward Carotid Artery Dissection, Outcomes, Surgery, Vertebral Artery Dissection 0:15:59 0 Comments

CF 295: Two Surgeries, Two Outcomes & Cervical Artery Dissection and Spinal Manipulative Therapy

Today we’re going to talk about Two Surgeries, Two Outcomes & Cervical Artery Dissection and Spinal Manipulative Therapy

But first, here‘s that sweet sweet bumper music

 

Purchase Dr. Williams’s book, a perfect educational tool and chiropractic research reference for the daily practitioner, from the Amazon store TODAY!

Chiropractic evidence-based products

Integrating Chiropractors

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OK, we are back and you have found the Chiropractic Forward Podcast where we are making evidence-based chiropractic fun, profitable, and accessible while we make you and your patients better all the way around.

We’re the fun kind of research. Not the stuffy, high-brow, look down your nose at people kind of research. We’re research talk over a couple of beers.

I’m Dr. Jeff Williams and I’m your host for the Chiropractic Forward podcast. I’m so glad you’re spending your time with us learning together.

Chiropractors – I’m hiring at my personal clinic. I need talent, ambition, drive, smart, and easy to get along with associates. If this is you and Amarillo, TX is your speed, send me an email at creekstonecare@gmail.com

If you haven’t yet I have a few things you should do.

  • Go to Amazon and check our my book called The Remarkable Truth About Chiropractic: A Unique Journey Into The Research. It’s excellent educational resource for you AND your patients. It saves you time putting talks together or just staying current on research. It’s categorized into sections so the information is easy to find and written in a way that is easy to understand for everyone. It’s on Amazon. That’s the Remarkable Truth About Chiropractic by Jeff Williams.
  • Then go Like our Chiropractic Forward Facebook page,
  • Join our private Chiropractic Forward Facebook group, and then
  • Review our podcast on whatever platform you’re listening to
  • Last thing real quick, we also have an evidence-based brochure and poster store at com

You have found yourself smack dab in the middle of Episode 295

Now if you missed last week’s episode, we talked about Kids’ Screen Time & Physical Activity In Older Adults

Make sure you don’t miss that info. Keep up with the class.

On the personal end of things…..

Crazy week of trying to do too many things but one particular thought I will share with you all, there is a group that I have been in negotiations with for quite some time now. We are deciding whether or not we will sell a portion of our clinic to a larger conglomerate.

What if an established group came to you and offered to buy a certain portion of your practice and they were offering you more money for that portion than you think you could get for 100% on the private market?

What if? What would you do?? What would be your parameters? Your absolutely nots with regard to what you would accept and not accept for your salary, your staff, restrictions on your clinic’s spending and overhead?

It’s pretty interesting. There was a time when I was absolutely opposed to selling any portion of something I’ve built with blood, sweat, and tears over 20+ years.

When you’re 51 and getting more and more tired every year, things start to look a little differently don’t they? That’s what we’re doing right now and I can say……I think it’s going to happen but, as usual, you know I’ll be sharing the info with you as I go along the process. Once I know when I’ve made the right decision, if I think it would benefit my listeners, I’ll be happy to connect you with the group as well.

But I’ll be taking the hickey first before I ever share the info on the podcast. I have a good feeling about it so….down the road I go.

Item #1

 

The first on today is called “ Two Surgeries, Two Outcomes” by HBR Editors and published in Harvard Business Review and on March 18, 2019.

Why They Did It

Both Sean and Carla experienced back pain for years, leading them to seek medical intervention. They both had abnormal MRIs, prompting them to explore their respective healthcare options. Sean chose to go through a traditional route with his insurance, while Carla opted for Walmart’s Centers of Excellence (COE) program for spine surgeries. Their decisions were likely influenced by factors such as their previous experiences with healthcare, financial considerations, and recommendations from their healthcare providers.

How They Did It

 

Sean’s Path:

  • Scheduled surgery with a local surgeon through traditional insurance.
  • Utilized traditional insurance coverage for the procedure.

Carla’s Path:

  • Contacted her traditional insurance carrier, which connected her with a third-party administrator (TPA).
  • The TPA team handled her intake and gathered relevant health history.
  • Selected a hospital affiliated with Walmart’s COE program based on her location.
  • Hospital team reviewed her medical records and MRI images, connecting her with a nurse navigator.
  • Flew to the hospital with her sister, received specialized care, and underwent surgery.

What They Found

Sean’s Experience:

  • Followed a conventional healthcare path.
  • Paid 50% of his spine surgery costs, which averaged around $15,000 for Walmart associates.
  • Returned to work after 90 days.

 

Carla’s Experience (COE Program):

  • Engaged with a streamlined process via Walmart’s COE program.
  • Received comprehensive care package, including procedures, devices, tests, drugs, services, and travel expenses for both her and her caregiver.
  • Stayed in the hospital for 2.5 days, which was the average for associates using the COE program.
  • Transferred to a local hotel for recovery.
  • Experienced a hassle-free postoperative journey, including postoperative visits and transportation.
  • Returned to work after 75 days.
  • Incurred no personal expenses for the surgery.

Wrap It Up

 

The COE program offered by Walmart provides a more streamlined and comprehensive healthcare experience for associates like Carla. It bypasses traditional insurance companies, negotiating bundled payments that cover all necessary costs associated with the procedure, including travel and lodging. This approach not only reduces financial burden on the patient but also ensures a smoother journey from diagnosis to recovery.

 

Comparatively, Sean’s experience with traditional insurance involved more fragmented steps and cost-sharing, ultimately leading to a longer recovery time and higher out-of-pocket expenses. While the COE program might have a higher upfront cost for Walmart, it proves to be a cost-effective solution in the long run, as it minimizes unnecessary surgeries and leads to better outcomes for the associates involved. This case study highlights the potential benefits of innovative healthcare programs in enhancing both patient experience and overall cost-effectiveness.

 

 

Before getting to the next one,

 

Next thing, go to https://www.tecnobody.com/en/products That’s Tecnobody as in T-E-C-nobody. They literally have the most impressive clinical equipment I’ve ever seen. I own the ISO Free and am looking to add more to my office this year or next. The equipment you’re going to find over there can be marketed in your community like crazy because you’ll be the only one with something that damn cool in your office.

 

When you decide you can‘t live without those products, send me an email and I‘ll give you the hookup. They will 100% differentiate your clinic from your competitors.

I have to tell you, Dr. Chris Howson, the inventor of the Drop Release tool re-activated the code! Use the code HOTSTUFF upon purchase at droprelease.com & get $50 off your purchase. Would you like to spend 5-10 minutes doing pin and stretch and all of that? Or would you rather use a drop release to get the same or similar results in just a handful of seconds. I love it, my patients love it, and I know yours will too. droprelease.com and the discount code is HOTSTUFF. Go do it.

Item #2

Our last one this week is called, “ The association between cervical artery dissection and spinal manipulation among US adults” by James M Whedon, Curtis L Petersen, William J Schoellkopf, Scott Haldeman, Todd A MacKenzie, Jon D Lurie and published in PubMed on  09 July 2023. Hot potato!

Why They Did It

Cervical artery dissection (CeAD), which includes both vertebral artery dissection (VAD) and carotid artery dissection (CAD), is the most serious safety concern associated with cervical spinal manipulation (CSM). We evaluated the association between CSM and CeAD among US adults.

How They Did It

Through analysis of health claims data, we employed a case-control study with matched controls, a case-control design in which controls were diagnosed with ischemic stroke, and a case-crossover design in which recent exposures were compared to exposures in the same case that occurred 6-7 months earlier. We evaluated the association between CeAD and the 3-level exposure, CSM versus office visit for medical evaluation and management (E&M) versus neither, with E&M set as the referent group.

 

 

 

What They Found

  • We identified 2337 VAD cases and 2916 CAD cases. Compared to population controls, VAD cases were 0.17 (95% CI 0.09 to 0.32) times as likely to have received CSM in the previous week as compared to E&M. In other words, E&M was about 5 times more likely than CSM in the previous week in cases, relative to controls.

  • CSM was 2.53 (95% CI 1.71 to 3.68) times as likely as E&M in the previous week among individuals with VAD than among individuals experiencing a stroke without CeAD. In the case-crossover study, CSM was 0.38 (95% CI 0.15 to 0.91) times as likely as E&M in the week before a VAD, relative to 6 months earlier. In other words, E&M was approximately 3 times more likely than CSM in the previous week in cases, relative to controls. Results for the 14-day and 30-day timeframes were similar to those at one week.

Wrap It Up

Among privately insured US adults, the overall risk of CeAD is very low. Prior receipt of CSM was more likely than E&M among VAD patients as compared to stroke patients. However, for CAD patients as compared to stroke patients, as well as for both VAD and CAD patients in comparison with population controls and in case-crossover analysis, prior receipt of E&M was more likely than CSM.

Let’s get to the message. Same as it is every week.

 

Store

Remember the evidence-informed brochures and posters at chiropracticforward.com.

 

 

Purchase Dr. Williams’s book, a perfect educational tool and chiropractic research reference for the daily practitioner, from the Amazon store TODAY!

Chiropractic evidence-based products

Integrating Chiropractors

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This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Screen-Shot-2018-07-12-at-10.23.09-AM-150x55.jpg

The Message

I want you to know with absolute certainty that when Chiropractic is at its best, you can‘t beat the risk vs reward ratio because spinal pain is primarily a movement-related pain and typically responds better to movement-related treatment rather than chemical treatments like pills and shots.

When compared to the traditional medical model, research and clinical experience show us patients can get good to excellent results for headaches, neck pain, back pain, and joint pain to name just a few.

It’s safe and cost-effective can decrease surgeries & disability and we do it through conservative, non-surgical means with minimal hassle to the patient.

And, if the patient treats preventatively after initial recovery, we can usually keep it that way while raising the overall level of health!

 

 

 

Key Point:

At the end of the day, patients should have the guarantee of having the best treatment that offers the least harm. When it comes to non-complicated musculoskeletal complaints….

That‘s Chiropractic!

Contact

Send us an email at dr dot williams at chiropracticforward.com and let us know what you think of our show and tell us your suggestions for future episodes.

Feedback and constructive criticism is a blessing and so are subscribes and excellent reviews on podcast platforms.

We know how this works by now. If you value something, you have to share it, interact with it, review it, talk about it from time to time, and actively hit a few buttons to support it here and there when asked. It really does make a big difference.

Connect

We can‘t wait to connect with you again next week. From the Chiropractic Forward Podcast flight deck, this is Dr. Jeff Williams saying upward, onward, and forward.

Website

Social Media Links

https://www.facebook.com/chiropracticforward/

Chiropractic Forward Podcast Facebook GROUP

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1938461399501889/

Twitter

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtc-IrhlK19hWlhaOGld76Q

iTunes

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/chiropractic-forward-podcast-chiropractors-practicing/id1331554445?mt=2

Player FM Link

https://player.fm/series/2291021

Stitcher:

https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-chiropractic-forward-podcast-chiropractors-practicing-through

TuneIn

https://tunein.com/podcasts/Health–Wellness-Podcasts/The-Chiropractic-Forward-Podcast-Chiropractors-Pr-p1089415/

About the Author & Host

Dr. Jeff Williams – Fellow of the International Academy of Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine (FIANM) and Board Certified Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Professionals (DABFP) – Chiropractor in Amarillo, TX, Chiropractic Advocate, Author, Entrepreneur, Educator, Businessman, Marketer, and Healthcare Blogger & Vlogger

     
Jeff Williams - evidence-based chiropractor

Discs In Low Back Pain & Unnecessary Surgeries Via COVID

August 25, 2023 chiropracticforward COVID-19, Disc Herniations, Low Back Pain, Surgery 0:18:26 0 Comments

CF 292: Discs In Low Back Pain & Unnecessary Surgeries Via COVID

Today we’re going to talk about Discs In Low Back Pain & Unnecessary Surgeries Via COVID

 

Purchase Dr. Williams’s book, a perfect educational tool and chiropractic research reference for the daily practitioner, from the Amazon store TODAY!

Chiropractic evidence-based products

Integrating Chiropractors

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Screen-Shot-2018-07-12-at-10.23.22-AM-150x55.jpg

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Screen-Shot-2018-07-12-at-10.23.33-AM-150x55.jpg

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Screen-Shot-2018-07-12-at-10.23.09-AM-150x55.jpg
 

OK, we are back and you have found the Chiropractic Forward Podcast where we are making evidence-based chiropractic fun, profitable, and accessible while we make you and your patients better all the way around.

We’re the fun kind of research. Not the stuffy, high-brow, look down your nose at people kind of research. We’re research talk over a couple of beers.

I’m Dr. Jeff Williams and I’m your host for the Chiropractic Forward podcast. I’m so glad you’re spending your time with us learning together.

Chiropractors – I’m hiring at my personal clinic. I need talent, ambition, drive, smart, and easy to get along with associates. If this is you and Amarillo, TX is your speed, send me an email at creekstonecare@gmail.com

If you haven’t yet I have a few things you should do.

  • Go to Amazon and check our my book called The Remarkable Truth About Chiropractic: A Unique Journey Into The Research. It’s excellent educational resource for you AND your patients. It saves you time putting talks together or just staying current on research. It’s categorized into sections so the information is easy to find and written in a way that is easy to understand for everyone. It’s on Amazon. That’s the Remarkable Truth About Chiropractic by Jeff Williams.
  • Then go Like our Chiropractic Forward Facebook page,
  • Join our private Chiropractic Forward Facebook group, and then
  • Review our podcast on whatever platform you’re listening to
  • Last thing real quick, we also have an evidence-based brochure and poster store at com

You have found yourself smack dab in the middle of Episode #292

Now if you missed last week’s episode, we talked about Racial and Ethnic Disparities In Chronic Low Back Pain & Pregnancy And Cannabis Use . Make sure you don’t miss that info. Keep up with the class.

On the personal end of things…..

Isn’t it funny how things work sometimes? I had something odd happened recently here in the clinic. We found out that our acupuncturist was moving to a different chiropractor’s office. She’s been with us for about eight years. What she’s credentialed through me to see veterans through our VA system.

So the VA randomly called us one day inquiring on her moving to another office and when that is happening, etc. Well, it was news to us. So we reached out to the acupuncturist and she admitted that she had plans to move but had not shared them with us yet. Although Amarillo Texas is about 225,000 people, there are only 3 acupuncturists in the entire area. It’s just not that popular here.

Although, it is definitely gaining in popularity. So the prospects of us being able to bring on another acupuncturist quickly are very slim. However, we went ahead and reached out to the one we really wanted to work with us. I have a good relationship with her, but things have just not worked out to where we could’ve actually worked together before. It turns out that she was tired of her current situation and was interested in making a move.

So she came in for an interview, we talked, and she was on board. We started the credentialing process with the VA that very day, so, while it takes 90 days to get credentialed, at this point, we are already almost a month into the process. That should significantly shorten the waiting period for our veterans to switch to a new acupuncturist and soften the landing.

Oh, in the meantime, if our previous acupuncturist, had any plans of stealing our patients, and taking them to a new place, that is going to be hard for her to accomplish. She hast to get completely re-credentialed, and I promise you were ahead of her on getting that done. In addition, the veterans have to get authorization to see her and she hast to get credentialed before they can even start the process of getting authorized through her. Whereas here in my clinic the machine is already built. The gears are already oiled and greased, and we are at fine-tune the machine. I think there’s no doubt we are going to come out ahead on this transition.

One thing we all know is that the one constant in life is that things are always changing.

Many of us are going through changes with staff. I have 3 CA’s and that third spot. It’s just a constant turnover. I have another one that will start in two weeks. The last one lasted for about two weeks. The one before her lasted about three months. It’s been miserable but when we find the right one I think it will have been worth it anyway, that’s what’s on my mind this morning. Getting acupuncture back up and running and marketed, and getting another new staff member up and going.

It’s a constant churn and, as they say in the military, just embrace the suck and keep trucking. It all pays for your life and for the life of your family members. Might as well enjoy all of it that you can and embrace the parts you feel suck your soul and keep that part in the proper context.

Item #1

 

The first on today is called “Intervertebral disc degeneration and how it leads to low back pain” by Ashish D Diwan, James Melrose and published in Pub Med on Nov14 2022. Dayum. That’s hot.

Why They Did It

  • The purpose of this review was to evaluate data generated by animal models of intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration published in the last decade.
  • The review aimed to highlight the valuable contributions of these animal models in identifying molecular events associated with pain generation.
  • IVD degeneration is a complex process contributing to spinal pain, and understanding the underlying mechanisms is crucial for developing effective therapeutic strategies to alleviate pain, promote disc repair and regeneration, and prevent associated neuropathic and nociceptive pain.

How They Did It

 

  • The researchers conducted a review of existing studies that employed animal models of IVD degeneration.
  • They likely searched relevant databases, academic journals, and publications from the past decade to gather a comprehensive dataset.

  • The selected studies would have used various animal models and experimental methods to induce IVD degeneration.

  • These animal models mimic certain aspects of human IVD degeneration, allowing researchers to study the molecular events and mechanisms involved in pain generation.

What They Found

  • Through their review, the researchers observed that in degenerated IVDs, there is nerve ingrowth and an increased number of nociceptors (pain-sensing neurons) and mechanoreceptors (sensors of mechanical stimuli).
  • The biomechanically incompetent and abnormally loaded degenerated IVDs experience increased mechanical stimulation, leading to heightened low back pain.
  • This finding helps establish a link between IVD degeneration and pain generation, shedding light on the complexity of the process.

  • The review also highlighted the potential of a specific factor called “growth and differentiation factor 6” in addressing IVD degeneration. Studies using this factor in IVD puncture and multi-level IVD degeneration models, along with a rat xenograft radiculopathy pain model, demonstrated its ability to prevent further deterioration in degenerate IVDs. The factor exhibited regenerative properties that promoted the recovery of normal IVD architectural functional organization and inhibited the generation of inflammatory mediators, which contribute to disc degeneration and low back pain.

Wrap It Up

 

  • The review of animal models of IVD degeneration provided valuable insights into the molecular events underlying pain generation in degenerate IVDs. It emphasized the importance of understanding the complex multifactorial process of IVD degeneration to identify potential therapeutic targets for pain relief and disc repair.

 

  • One promising candidate identified through the review was “growth and differentiation factor 6,” which showed considerable potential in preventing further deterioration of degenerate IVDs, promoting regeneration, and inhibiting the generation of inflammatory mediators.

 

  • The findings from these animal models suggest the need for human clinical trials with this compound to assess its efficacy in treating IVD degeneration and preventing low back pain generation in humans. Overall, this review underscores the significance of animal models in advancing our understanding of IVD degeneration and pain mechanisms, ultimately leading to improved treatment strategies for patients suffering from low back pain.

 

Before getting to the next one,

 

Next thing, go to https://www.tecnobody.com/en/products That’s Tecnobody as in T-E-C-nobody. They literally have the most impressive clinical equipment I’ve ever seen. I own the ISO Free and am looking to add more to my office this year or next. The equipment you’re going to find over there can be marketed in your community like crazy because you’ll be the only one with something that damn cool in your office.

 

When you decide you can‘t live without those products, send me an email and I‘ll give you the hookup. They will 100% differentiate your clinic from your competitors.

I have to tell you, Dr. Chris Howson, the inventor of the Drop Release tool re-activated the code! Use the code HOTSTUFF upon purchase at droprelease.com & get $50 off your purchase. Would you like to spend 5-10 minutes doing pin and stretch and all of that? Or would you rather use a drop release to get the same or similar results in just a handful of seconds. I love it, my patients love it, and I know yours will too. droprelease.com and the discount code is HOTSTUFF. Go do it.

Item #2

Our last one this week is called, “100,000 older Americans got unnecessary surgeries during dangerous first year of COVID-19” by Aaron Toleos and published in Lown Institute on May 17, 2022. Hot potato!

Why They Did It

The Lown Institute conducted this analysis to shed light on the issue of overuse of medical procedures in American healthcare, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim was to bring attention to the fact that even during a public health crisis, unnecessary procedures were still being performed on vulnerable patients, potentially exposing them to harm and wasting healthcare resources.

How They Did It

The analysis was based on Medicare claims data from January to December 2020. The Lown Institute used the 100% Medicare claims database to evaluate the volume of overuse for eight common low-value procedures. The specific procedures and criteria for overuse were determined based on the institute’s previously published research into the measurement of low-value care at hospitals.

 

 

What They Found

  • The Lown Institute found that a total of 106,474 unnecessary procedures were identified during the analyzed period. The most overused procedure by volume was coronary stents, with 45,176 procedures performed. Other procedures with high rates of overuse included vertebroplasty for osteoporosis, hysterectomy for benign disease, and spinal fusion for back pain.

  • The analysis also revealed that approximately one in five of these low-value procedures met the criteria for overuse across the country. Even some of the nation’s most well-regarded hospitals had rates of overuse above the national average. For example, all of the top 20 hospitals ranked by U.S. News had rates of coronary stent overuse above the national average, with four of them having rates at least double that.

 

Wrap It Up

The analysis conducted by the Lown Institute highlights the persistence of overuse of medical procedures in U.S. hospitals, even during a major public health crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite previous knowledge that certain procedures, such as coronary stents for stable coronary disease, are of limited clinical benefit, they continue to be performed at high rates. This raises concerns about patient safety, healthcare costs, and the need to address the issue of overuse in the American healthcare system. The findings call for greater attention to evidence-based practices and the promotion of appropriate and necessary medical interventions to ensure better patient outcomes and more efficient use of healthcare resources.

Let’s get to the message. Same as it is every week.

 

Store

Remember the evidence-informed brochures and posters at chiropracticforward.com.

 

 

 

Purchase Dr. Williams’s book, a perfect educational tool and chiropractic research reference for the daily practitioner, from the Amazon store TODAY!

Chiropractic evidence-based products

Integrating Chiropractors

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Screen-Shot-2018-07-12-at-10.23.22-AM-150x55.jpg

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Screen-Shot-2018-07-12-at-10.23.33-AM-150x55.jpg

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Screen-Shot-2018-07-12-at-10.23.09-AM-150x55.jpg

The Message

I want you to know with absolute certainty that when Chiropractic is at its best, you can‘t beat the risk vs reward ratio because spinal pain is primarily a movement-related pain and typically responds better to movement-related treatment rather than chemical treatments like pills and shots.

When compared to the traditional medical model, research and clinical experience show us patients can get good to excellent results for headaches, neck pain, back pain, and joint pain to name just a few.

It’s safe and cost-effective can decrease surgeries & disability and we do it through conservative, non-surgical means with minimal hassle to the patient.

And, if the patient treats preventatively after initial recovery, we can usually keep it that way while raising the overall level of health!

 

Key Point:

At the end of the day, patients should have the guarantee of having the best treatment that offers the least harm. When it comes to non-complicated musculoskeletal complaints….

That‘s Chiropractic!

Contact

Send us an email at dr dot williams at chiropracticforward.com and let us know what you think of our show and tell us your suggestions for future episodes.

Feedback and constructive criticism is a blessing and so are subscribes and excellent reviews on podcast platforms.

We know how this works by now. If you value something, you have to share it, interact with it, review it, talk about it from time to time, and actively hit a few buttons to support it here and there when asked. It really does make a big difference.

Connect

We can‘t wait to connect with you again next week. From the Chiropractic Forward Podcast flight deck, this is Dr. Jeff Williams saying upward, onward, and forward.

Website

Social Media Links

https://www.facebook.com/chiropracticforward/

Chiropractic Forward Podcast Facebook GROUP

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1938461399501889/

Twitter

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtc-IrhlK19hWlhaOGld76Q

iTunes

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/chiropractic-forward-podcast-chiropractors-practicing/id1331554445?mt=2

Player FM Link

https://player.fm/series/2291021

Stitcher:

https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-chiropractic-forward-podcast-chiropractors-practicing-through

TuneIn

https://tunein.com/podcasts/Health–Wellness-Podcasts/The-Chiropractic-Forward-Podcast-Chiropractors-Pr-p1089415/

About the Author & Host

Dr. Jeff Williams – Fellow of the International Academy of Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine (FIANM) and Board Certified Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Professionals (DABFP) – Chiropractor in Amarillo, TX, Chiropractic Advocate, Author, Entrepreneur, Educator, Businessman, Marketer, and Healthcare Blogger & Vlogger

Jeff Williams - evidence-based chiropractor

COVID-Delayed Surgeries & Lumbar Stenosis Research

July 13, 2023 chiropracticforward COVID-19, Stenosis, Surgery 00:17:40 0 Comments

CF 288: COVID-Delayed Surgeries & Lumbar Stenosis Research

 

Today we’re going to talk about COVID-Delayed Surgeries & Lumbar Stenosis Research

 

But first, here’s that sweet sweet bumper music

 

Purchase Dr. Williams’s book, a perfect educational tool and chiropractic research reference for the daily practitioner, from the Amazon store TODAY!

Chiropractic evidence-based products

Integrating Chiropractors

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Screen-Shot-2018-07-12-at-10.23.22-AM-150x55.jpg

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Screen-Shot-2018-07-12-at-10.23.33-AM-150x55.jpg

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Screen-Shot-2018-07-12-at-10.23.09-AM-150x55.jpg

OK, we are back and you have found the Chiropractic Forward Podcast where we are making evidence-based chiropractic fun, profitable, and accessible while  we make you and your patients better all the way around.

 

We’re the fun kind of research. Not the stuffy, high-brow, look down your nose at people kind of research. We’re research talk over a couple of beers.

 

I’m Dr. Jeff Williams and I’m your host for the Chiropractic Forward podcast.  I’m so glad you’re spending your time with us learning together.

 

Chiropractors – I’m hiring at my personal clinic. I need talent, ambition, drive, smart, and easy to get along with associates. If this is you and Amarillo, TX is your speed, send me an email at creekstonecare@gmail.com

 

If you haven’t yet I have a few things you should do.

  • Go to Amazon and check our my book called The Remarkable Truth About Chiropractic: A Unique Journey Into The Research. It’s excellent educational resource for you AND your patients. It saves you time putting talks together or just staying current on research. It’s categorized into sections so the information is easy to find and written in a way that is easy to understand for everyone. It’s on Amazon. That’s the Remarkable Truth About Chiropractic by Jeff Williams.
  • Then go Like our Chiropractic Forward Facebook page,
  • Join our private Chiropractic Forward Facebook group, and then
  • Review our podcast on whatever platform you’re listening to
  • Last thing real quick, we also have an evidence-based brochure and poster store at com

 

You have found yourself smack dab in the middle of Episode #289

 

Now if you missed last week’s episode, we talked about Mindfulness For Knee Replacement & The Use Of Tuina.

Make sure you don’t miss that info. Keep up with the class.

 

On the personal end of things…..

I’ll share with you all that I’ve been messing around a lot with AI and how it can make my life easier while saving me money. And it has.

 

What I’ve figured out so far:

  1. I used to have to hire a virtual assistant off of Upwork to create my personal website blogs. I would always go in and take out the vitalist, philosophy stuff and make the blog mine but, for the bulk of the blogging, they would do it. Now, AI does it. I do the same process on my end but it doesn’t cost me nearly as much each week. In fact, the assistant, come to find out, was using AI and charging me as if they were the one creating it all. Now, I’ve cut out the middleman and saved money.
  2. I was intimidated in the beginning, but I recently started experimenting with lots of AI image creation apps. I finally settled on one I really like and now, I can make unique, non-copyrighted images for my blogs, social media, etc. No more lame images off of Pixabay to find a non-licensed image anymore. I just make my own and, I have to admit, it’s kind of fun.

 

There is definitely a learning curve on AI right now but once you’ve crossed the threshold, it’s all downhill and life is good. I have some crude southern sayings to describe the easy life but I’ll save those for personal, one on one conversations if we ever meet in person.

 

So that’s what’s been on my radar lately.

 

Also, there is a group here in Texas that is buying percentages of practices. You still run it as you always have but they do the HR, billing and collections, AR, etc. All of the soul sucking parts of practice. No name change and the valuation and offering for 60% is more than fair.

 

That’s on my radar. We might do that. Life would smooth out if we did some of that. Keeping up with this machine without a dependable billing/collections dept is just a train wreck and hurts the heart pretty much every week.

 

As always, as we make our way through the mud and muck, I’ll be sure to keep you updated.

 

For now though, let’s get into the research, shall we?

 

 

Item #1

 

The first one today is called “Patients who delayed non-emergency surgeries during the pandemic are returning for care” by Beth Kutscher and published in LinkedIn on June 29, 2023. Dayum. That’s hot.

 

 

Why They Did It

 

The patients who postponed non-emergency surgeries during the pandemic are now seeking care, leading to an increase in surgical volume.

 

This has sparked a discussion about the necessity of these procedures. The motive behind studying the prevalence of unnecessary surgeries is to identify potential areas where healthcare resources and costs can be optimized.

 

 

How They Did It

 

  • The analysis involves studying the rates of surgical procedures and identifying cases that may be deemed unnecessary.
  • The Lown Institute conducted a controversial study that identified over 106,000 potentially unnecessary surgeries between March and December 2020.
  • However, the study’s methodology and conclusions were criticized by the American Hospital Association for having limitations and flaws. Other studies have also shown significant variations in surgical rates across countries and states, such as the high c-section rate in the United States and the discrepancy in lumbar fusion rates.

 

  • Vijay Yanamadala, a spine surgeon, conducted his own research on unnecessary lumbar spinal fusions, estimating that over 50% of such surgeries may be unnecessary. He also referenced the Lown Institute data, which suggests that back procedures, including vertebroplasty for osteoporosis and spinal fusion for back pain, contribute to about one-third of unnecessary surgeries.

 

  • Yanamadala wears two hats in this context, serving as a neurosurgeon and also as the chief medical officer for Sword Health, a company providing digital physical therapy.

 

 

What They Found

 

  • The Lown Institute’s study identified a large volume of potentially unnecessary procedures.
  • Yanamadala’s research specifically focused on lumbar spinal fusions and suggested that over 50% of them could be unnecessary.
  • Back procedures, including vertebroplasty and spinal fusion, were found to account for a significant portion of unnecessary surgeries.

 

 

Wrap It Up

 

  • The analysis of surgical procedures suggests that there is an issue with unnecessary surgeries in the healthcare system.
  • Factors contributing to unnecessary surgeries include poor compliance with physical therapy before surgery and the profit-driven nature of the U.S. healthcare system.
  • While elective surgeries are profitable for hospitals, there is a shortage of physical therapists, and certain specialties, such as neurosurgery, are more sought-after than non-surgical specialties like spinal cord injury fellowships.

 

  • The findings emphasize the need for a more balanced and patient-centered approach to surgical decision-making. Optimizing healthcare resources, improving compliance with non-surgical alternatives like physical therapy, and addressing the disparities in access to appropriate care are important steps toward reducing unnecessary surgeries and ensuring that patients receive the right care.

 

 

 

Before getting to the next one,

 

Next thing, go to https://www.tecnobody.com/en/products That’s Tecnobody as in T-E-C-nobody. They literally have the most impressive clinical equipment I’ve ever seen. I own the ISO Free and am looking to add more to my office this year or next. The equipment you’re going to find over there can be marketed in your community like crazy because you’ll be the only one with something that damn cool in your office.

 

When you decide you can’t live without those products, send me an email and I’ll give you the hookup. They will 100% differentiate your clinic from your competitors.

 

 

I have to tell you, Dr. Chris Howson, the inventor of the Drop Release tool re-activated the code! Use the code HOTSTUFF upon purchase at droprelease.com & get $50 off your purchase. Would you like to spend 5-10 minutes doing pin and stretch and all of that? Or would you rather use a drop release to get the same or similar results in just a handful of seconds. I love it, my patients love it, and I know yours will too. droprelease.com and the discount code is HOTSTUFF. Go do it.

 

Item #2

 

Our last one this week is called, “A prospective study of non-surgical versus surgical treatment for lumbar spinal stenosis without instability” by Jung et al.  and published in PubMed on August 17, 2020.

 

 

 

Why They Did It

 

This study compared non-surgical and surgical outcomes in surgical candidates for lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS).

 

 

How They Did It

 

  • Surgical candidates for stenosis were prospectively screened.
  • Patients were offered the option to be enrolled in a randomized cohort, an observational cohort, or not to participate.
  • Patient-reported outcomes were evaluated at baseline, and at 1, 3, 6, and 12 month
  • The primary outcomes were measures of pain and functional outcomes such as the Korean version of the Oswestry Disability Index (K-ODI), the EuroQol 5-Dimension instrument (EQ-5D), and 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36).

 

 

What They Found

 

  • 110 patients were enrolled in the randomized cohort and 37 patients in the observational cohort.

 

  • Among them, 97 patients received non-surgical treatment, and 50 patients underwent surgical treatment.

 

  • At 12 months, the non-surgical treatment group had less improvements in the primary outcome measures of back pain, leg pain, EQ-5D utility index and EQ-5D VAS.

 

  • Most SF-36 section parameters also showed less improvement in the non-surgical treatment group than in the surgical treatment group throughout the 12-month follow-up.

 

Wrap It Up

 

In stenosis patients without instability, non-surgical treatment resulted in less pain improvement and functional recovery through 1 year.

 

 

Alright, that’s it. Keep on keepin’ on. Keep changing our profession from your corner of the world. The world needs evidence-based, patient-centered practitioners driving the bus. The profession needs us in the ACA and involved in leadership of state associations. So quit griping about the profession if you’re doing nothing to make it better. Get active, get involved, and make it happen.

 

Let’s get to the message. Same as it is every week.

 

Store

Remember the evidence-informed brochures and posters at chiropracticforward.com.

 

 

Purchase Dr. Williams’s book, a perfect educational tool and chiropractic research reference for the daily practitioner, from the Amazon store TODAY!

Chiropractic evidence-based products

Integrating Chiropractors

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The Message

I want you to know with absolute certainty that when Chiropractic is at its best, you can’t beat the risk vs reward ratio because spinal pain is primarily a movement-related pain and typically responds better to movement-related treatment rather than chemical treatments like pills and shots.

 

When compared to the traditional medical model, research and clinical experience show us patients can get good to excellent results for headaches, neck pain, back pain, and joint pain to name just a few.

 

It’s safe and cost-effective can decrease surgeries & disability and we do it through conservative, non-surgical means with minimal hassle to the patient.

 

And, if the patient treats preventatively after initial recovery, we can usually keep it that way while raising the overall level of health!

 

Key Point:

At the end of the day, patients should have the guarantee of having the best treatment that offers the least harm. When it comes to non-complicated musculoskeletal complaints….

 

That’s Chiropractic!

 

Contact

Send us an email at dr dot williams at chiropracticforward.com and let us know what you think of our show and tell us your suggestions for future episodes.

 

Feedback and constructive criticism is a blessing and so are subscribes and excellent reviews on podcast platforms.

 

We know how this works by now. If you value something, you have to share it, interact with it, review it, talk about it from time to time, and actively hit a few buttons to support it here and there when asked. It really does make a big difference.

 

Connect

We can’t wait to connect with you again next week. From the Chiropractic Forward Podcast flight deck, this is Dr. Jeff Williams saying upward, onward, and forward.

 

Website

 

Social Media Links

https://www.facebook.com/chiropracticforward/

 

Chiropractic Forward Podcast Facebook GROUP

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1938461399501889/

 

Twitter

 

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtc-IrhlK19hWlhaOGld76Q

 

iTunes

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/chiropractic-forward-podcast-chiropractors-practicing/id1331554445?mt=2

 

Player FM Link

https://player.fm/series/2291021

 

Stitcher:

https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-chiropractic-forward-podcast-chiropractors-practicing-through

 

TuneIn

https://tunein.com/podcasts/Health–Wellness-Podcasts/The-Chiropractic-Forward-Podcast-Chiropractors-Pr-p1089415/

 

About the Author & Host

Dr. Jeff Williams – Fellow of the International Academy of Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine (FIANM) and Board Certified Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Professionals (DABFP) – Chiropractor in Amarillo, TX, Chiropractic Advocate, Author, Entrepreneur, Educator, Businessman, Marketer, and Healthcare Blogger & Vlogger

 

 

Jeff Williams - evidence-based chiropractor

Extruded Discs – Surgery or No Surgery?

September 30, 2021 chiropracticforward Disc Herniations, Surgery 00:26:14 0 Comments

CF 197: Extruded Discs – Surgery or No Surgery? Today we’re going to talk about extruded discs – surgery or no surgery? This one may surprise some of you.  But first, here’s that sweet sweet bumper music

Purchase Dr. Williams’s book, a perfect educational tool and chiropractic research reference for the daily practitioner, from the Amazon store TODAY!

Chiropractic evidence-based products

Integrating Chiropractors

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OK, we are back and you have found the Chiropractic Forward Podcast where we are making evidence-based chiropractic fun, profitable, and accessible while we make you and your patients better all the way around.  We’re the fun kind of research. Not the stuffy, high-brow kind of research. We’re research talk over a couple of beers. I’m Dr. Jeff Williams and I’m your host for the Chiropractic Forward podcast.   If you haven’t yet I have a few things you should do. 

  • Go to Amazon and check our my book called The Remarkable Truth About Chiropractic: A Unique Journey Into The Research. It’s an invaluable resource for your patient education and for you. It can save you time in putting talks together or just staying current on research. It’s categorized into sections so that the information is easy to find and it’s written in a way that is easy to understand for practitioner as well as patient. You have to check it out. Just search for it on Amazon. That’s the Remarkable Truth About Chiropractic by Jeff Williams. 
  • Then go Like our Facebook page, 
  • Join our private Facebook group and interact, and then 
  • go review our podcast on iTunes and other podcast platforms. 
  • We also have an evidence-based brochure and poster store at chiropracticforward.com
  • While you’re there, join our weekly email newsletter. 

You have found yourself smack dab in the middle of Episode #197 Now if you missed last week’s episode , we talked about How Car Wrecks Contribute To Future Neck and Back Pain. Make sure you don’t miss that info. Keep up with the class. 

On the personal end of things…..

Alright, I’m feeling pretty good today. Last week was the very first time since February of 2020 that we hit the average weekly visit number that we were doing. I don’t know if that came out right. Before Rona, we were averaging 185 visits per week in 2019.  Rona came along and the best we’ve been able to eke out was about 160. Maybe 165. With the rollercoaster ups and downs of the Rona outbreaks, that number has been down but since February of 2020, it’s never been any higher than that.  Until last week. Last week, by myself, I hit 187. 23 of them were new patients. When you are evidence-based and patient-centered, you don’t hold on to patient unnecessarily for extended visits and treatment schedules so, unfortunately, you live and die by your new patient count. 

Fortunately for me, I’m to a point that new patients aren’t a huge concern. I always have my eye on the count, but it doesn’t give me anxiety these days. We are pretty established here in my community and it tends to mostly take care of itself. Thank my good Lord.  I don’t know if you’ve listened this long but back in February of 2020, the 14th to be exact, my wife and I took a trip to Key Largo. It was amazing.

I left a bustling, busy as hell practice to go on vacation. There was some concern about this COVID stuff but nothing crazy.  In fact, I remember asking my wife on the way to Florida if we should take a mask just in case they told us we needed one. She told me if I brought a mask, that she’d punch me in the nose. Lol. Yes, I have that kind of a wifey. She’s a feisty Texas woman, ya know.  After a week in The Keys, I came back to a ghost town. And then it got worse. I swore I’d never go on vacation again if it was going to tank my practice like that. Well, obviously, it was COVID. And it’s taken a year and a half to start to reclaim our lost business.

But, at 45 patients today as I type this and 5 of them being new patients, this week is looking good too.  Here’s the best news about it all; this is in the midst of a BIG resurgence of COVID here in Amarillo locally. They are adding numbers at the rate they were adding them back in the worst of times. But people are done with it. They just are.  I was one of the first group of providers to be vaccinated here locally. My friends and connections in the medical world here called me when it first came available. They recognized that we work in very close proximity with patients and reached out. Most of my staff and I accepted. I’ve been vaccinated since January 2021. 

I just got the booster on August 26th. It’s a personal thing for each of us but, when you have had a hit on your business like I have, and you’ve had all of the ups and downs, and you’re just now getting back to where you left off after basically losing a year and a half…….well, I’m not about to take a chance on getting sick and being out for 2-4 weeks and watching my business go to crap again.  Including me, I have 12 employees.

That includes 4 CA’s, 3 LMT’s, an NP, an acupuncturist, an esthetician, a billing pro, and I have an intern from Parker College here. These people have families, mortgages, bills, car payments, and gambling debts just to name a few things.  The point is, when you’re the main provider and breadwinner, for me, it’s up to us to be as responsible as we can to make sure we are able to do our jobs.  For example,  here in Amarillo, TX, we are fairly close to the Colorado and New Mexico mountains. About 3 and a half hours to NM and about 5 or so to Colorado. Pretty close. We grew up going skiing in the mountains.

But it dawned on my during my last trip a few years ago; they call them accidents for a reason.  If I fall and break a wrist or twist a knee up, I could be out of a job for up to 6 weeks or more. Well hell, in most cases, that’s more time out than COVID would take you out. I’m the major provider at this time for this clinic. I can’t allow that. So, I gave up snow skiing. It’s not worth it to me.  Why should the pandemic be looked at any differently? For me, it shouldn’t be.  Anyway, I got a little sidetracked there.

Things are going well. I’m hoping business is back to normal and stays normal. For me and for you. We have all fought hard and deserve it.  Now, let’s get some folks to feeling better shall we? Let’s hop into research having to do with large extruded discs.  Once upon a time, I would send them straight to a Neurosurgeon. Not so quickly these days. Knowledge and clinical experience tell me to think twice. Especially in the absence of progressive neurological deficits. 

Item #1

Item one is called “Spontaneous Regression of a Large Lumbar Disc Extrusion” by Ryu et. Al (Ryu Sung-Joo 2010) and published in the Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society back in 2010. It’s got a little dust on it but not a ton.  

Why They Did It

They say that Although the spontaneous disappearance or decrease in size of a herniated disc is well known, that of a large extruded disc has rarely been reported. This paper reports a case of spontaneous regression of large lumbar disc extrusion. The disc regressed spontaneously with clinical improvement and was documented on a follow-up MRI study 6 months later. 

How They Did It

  • It’s a case report so it’s not incredibly impactful but still helpful for something like this. You can see it on one MRI and then 6 months later, it’s gone. 2+2=4 so I’m OK with a case report on something like this here. 
  • A 53-year-old woman was referred to our clinic with a 6-month history of low-back and left lateral leg pain with numbness. Six months earlier, her symptoms had developed suddenly as severe left lateral leg pain. 
  • A neurological examination showed no neurological deficits. The straight leg raise test was negative bilaterally. The lumbar spine MRI performed 6 months earlier revealed a left posterolateral herniated nucleus pulposus which was migrated caudally and compressed the left L5 root
  • She received conservative treatment including pain-relieving medication, physical therapy and spinal anesthetic block therapy due to her poor medical conditions

What They Found

  • After conservative treatment, her clinical symptoms subsided gradually but the numbness of her left lateral leg still remained. A second MRI study performed approximately 6 months after the prior examination reveal almost complete disappearance of the extruded fragment that had been located posterolateral to the L5 vertebral body, and no evidence of compression or displacement of the dural sac or nerve root
  • The height of the L4/5 disc space remained decreased compared to the other levels and was unchanged from the previous MRI examination.

Wrap It Up

  • The precise mechanisms of disc regression are unclear. Three hypotheses have been proposed to explain the process of disc regression. 
  •  
  • The first hypothesis, “retraction of a herniated disc”, proposes that the herniated disc retracts back into the intervertebral space17). Theoretically, this can occur if there is a disc bulge or if the disc material protrudes through the anulus fibrosus but is not separated from it6). However, it would be unlikely in cases of completely extruded or migrated fragments. 
  •  
  • The second explanation, “dehydration of herniated disc”, states that the herniated fragment would disappear due to gradual dehydration and shrinkage16). 
  •  
  • The third hypothesis, “inflammatory reaction and neovascularization”, which is the most compelling and studied hypothesis, states that extruded disc material into the epidural vascular space of spine is recognized as a “foreign body” and induces an inflammatory reaction by the autoimmune system. This would cause neovascularization of the cartilaginous tissue along with infiltration by inflammatory cells, such as macrophages, granulocytes, and lymphocytes7,8,10,11,15). Several histopathology studies from surgical specimens and experimental animal research support this theory
  • Nevertheless, it is possible that all 3 mechanisms play a role in the regression and disappearance of herniated disc tissue.
  • Motor and sensory deficits are present in 50-90% of patients with a herniated lumbar disc18). Surgery can be carried out as an emergency when bladder symptoms or progressive motor weakness are present. In the absence of these symptoms, 75-90% of patients with acute sciatica due to a protruded lumbar disc experience a resolution of symptoms without surgery 
  • Conservative treatment should be considered when cauda equina syndrome or progressive motor weakness are absent in the acute stage of the lumbar herniated disc. Surgical intervention should be considered in cases with neurological deficits or intractable low back and leg pain despite the initial conservative treatment

CHIROUP ADVERTISEMENT

Item #2

Our last one is called “Spontaneously disappearing large herniated lumbar disc fragment”’ by Reddy et. al. (Reddy UV 2014) and published in the Journal of Orthopaedics and Allied Sciences in 2014. As impactful as this information is, why do you think there aren’t more studies on it that are recent? Could it because it suggests they shouldn’t be doing surgery on these large extruded discs?

Why They Did It There are reports of spontaneous regression of large extruded disc; however, the exact underlying mechanism and management of such cases remains controversial. We report a 40-year-old female who opted for conservative management for a large extruded lumbar disc. Follow-up magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed complete disappearance of the disc fragment; however, there were degenerative changes in the upper and lower adjacent margins of the vertebral body.  Herniated lumbar disc is one of the common causes of low back pain and smaller disc herniations tend to regress over a period of time; and thus, the pain is known to improve with conservative management. 

How They Did It

A 40-year-old female presented with low back pain of 2 year duration. The pain was radiating to lower limbs more to the left side. There was no history of motor or sensory deficits. There was no history of bowel or bladder dysfunction. She was investigated for the similar problem with an MRI 6 months back and it showed a large disc protrusion [Figure 1]. However, she opted for conservative management. On examination, there were no focal motor or sensory deficits. Deep tendon reflexes were normal except bilateral sluggish ankle jerks. Planters were flexor. As the patient was complaining in the severity of the pain with numbness and a repeat magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed. Follow-up MRI showed complete disappearance of the disc fragment;

What They Found

The exact timing for spontaneous regression of the protruded disc material is not known; however, it ranges from few weeks to months. The fastest regression of the fragmented disc material was reported in 2 months.

Wrap It Up

Present case illustrates that a conservative approach can be adopted for a large extruded lumbar disc as it can resolve in a selective group of patients. [24],[38],[39] Spine surgeons should be aware of spontaneous regression of the disc phenomenon as a patient with a large extruded disc who opted for the conservative management initially can have persistence pain, but there may not be an underlying protruded disc. It is important to perform a repeat imaging of the spine to assess the degree and severity of the disc protrusion before making a plan for surgery or any further conservative management.

Alright, that’s it. Keep on keepin’ on. Keep changing our profession from your corner of the world. The world needs evidence-based, patient-centered practitioners driving the bus so get active, get involved, and make it happen. Let’s get to the message. Same as it is every week. 

Store Remember the evidence-informed brochures and posters at chiropracticforward.com.   

Purchase Dr. Williams’s book, a perfect educational tool and chiropractic research reference for the daily practitioner, from the Amazon store TODAY!

Chiropractic evidence-based products

Integrating Chiropractors

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This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Screen-Shot-2018-07-12-at-10.23.09-AM-150x55.jpg

The Message

I want you to know with absolute certainty that when Chiropractic is at its best, you can’t beat the risk vs reward ratio because spinal pain is primarily a movement-related pain and typically responds better to movement-related treatment rather than chemical treatments like pills and shots. When compared to the traditional medical model, research and clinical experience show us patients can get good to excellent results for headaches, neck pain, back pain, and joint pain to name just a few. It’s safe and cost-effective can decrease surgeries & disability and we do it through conservative, non-surgical means with minimal hassle to the patient. And, if the patient treats preventatively after initial recovery, we can usually keep it that way while raising the overall level of health!

Key Point:

At the end of the day, patients should have the guarantee of having the best treatment that offers the least harm. When it comes to non-complicated musculoskeletal complaints…. That’s Chiropractic!

Contact

Send us an email at dr dot williams at chiropracticforward.com and let us know what you think of our show and tell us your suggestions for future episodes.  Feedback and constructive criticism is a blessing and so are subscribes and excellent reviews on podcast platforms.  We know how this works by now. If you value something, you have to share it, interact with it, review it, talk about it from time to time, and actively hit a few buttons to support it here and there when asked. It really does make a big difference. 

Connect

We can’t wait to connect with you again next week. From the Chiropractic Forward Podcast flight deck, this is Dr. Jeff Williams saying upward, onward, and forward.

Website https://www.chiropracticforward.com

Social Media Links https://www.facebook.com/chiropracticforward/

Chiropractic Forward Podcast Facebook GROUP https://www.facebook.com/groups/1938461399501889/

Twitter https://twitter.com/Chiro_Forward

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtc-IrhlK19hWlhaOGld76Q

iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/chiropractic-forward-podcast-chiropractors-practicing/id1331554445?mt=2

Player FM Link https://player.fm/series/2291021

Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-chiropractic-forward-podcast-chiropractors-practicing-through

TuneIn https://tunein.com/podcasts/Health–Wellness-Podcasts/The-Chiropractic-Forward-Podcast-Chiropractors-Pr-p1089415/

About the Author & Host Dr. Jeff Williams – Fellow of the International Academy of Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine – Chiropractor in Amarillo, TX, Chiropractic Advocate, Author, Entrepreneur, Educator, Businessman, Marketer, and Healthcare Blogger & Vlogger

Bibliography

  • Reddy UV, A. A., Hegde KV, Suneetha P, Rao MG, (2014). “Spontaneously disappearing large herniated lumbar disc fragment.” J Orthop Allied Sci 2: 26-28.  
  • Ryu Sung-Joo (2010). “Spontaneous Regression of a Large Lumbar Disc Extrusion.” J Korean Neurosurg Soc. 48(3): 285-287.    
Evidence based chiropractic forward podcast

The Failure Of Lumbar Fusion Surgery

January 14, 2021 chiropracticforward Disc Herniations, Low Back Pain, Lumbar Fusion, Lumbar Herniation, Surgery 00:31:26 0 Comments

CF 160: The Failure Of Lumbar Fusion Surgery

Today we’re going to be talking all about lumbar fusion surgery and my growing disdain for the procedure. 

But first, here’s that sweet sweet bumper music

 

OK, we are back and you have found the Chiropractic Forward Podcast where we are making evidence-based chiropractic fun, profitable, and accessible while we make you and your patients better all the way around. 

We’re the fun kind of research. Not the stuffy, high-brow kind of research. We’re research talk over a couple of beers.

I’m Dr. Jeff Williams and I’m your host for the Chiropractic Forward podcast.  

If you haven’t yet I have a few things you should do. 

  • Like our Facebook page, 
  • Join our private Facebook group and interact, and then 
  • go review our podcast on iTunes and other podcast platforms. 
  • We also have an evidence-based brochure and poster store at chiropracticforward.com
  • While you’re there, join our weekly email newsletter. 

You have found yourself smack dab in the middle of Episode #160

Now if you missed last week’s episode, we talked about setting yourself apart in the way you treat migraines. This was an excellent episode that has no choice but to make you better. Make sure you don’t miss that info. Keep up with the class. 

On the personal end of things…..

I watched an ESPN 30 For 30 the other night. It was on Jim Valvano and his North Carolina State Wolfpack that won the national championship in basketball in 1983 I believe. It was such an unlikely story and some of his techniques were a bit wonky. 

For example, he used to make the team practice cutting down the nets from the goals after winning the championship. Far before it was ever even in the realm of possibility. The players said that was more than a little weird at first but that they came to enjoy it and it was just a part of goal-setting and visualizing. 

Visualization is such a big part of a mental process we can, and should, partake in. I myself forget to think to do it. Even though I know how impactful visualization can be. 

I can give you a personal example where visualization came in handy for me. I was a mediocre discus and shot put thrower in high school. OK, probably above average to be honest but I don’t want to pump my own tires too much. 

I ended up my junior year at 150’. That throw might win district but won’t do a lot for a guy at a regional meet. 

When my senior year came around, in the early Spring, I began getting recruited by a lot of colleges. Mostly DII colleges. One of the coaches recruiting me knew about my discus and shot put throwing. He recommended a book. It was called Peak Performance: Mental Training Techniques Of The world’s Greatest Athletes by Charles A. Garfield. 

This book was about relaxation and visualization techniques of the top athletes in the world. It was like nothing I’d ever read. Now, this was back in 1990. They may have improved visualization and relaxation techniques since then but I’m telling you, this book punted me into a different stratosphere on this stuff. I’ll put a link to it on biblio.com in the show notes for this episode. Go check it out. 

https://www.biblio.com/book/peak-performance-mental-training-techniques-worlds/d/1362768092?aid=frg&currency_id=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAlsv_BRDtARIsAHMGVSZ40_eKAIMbAHTRPRIUrdGXJN5c6n4SG74XgCEYiPpihaJGbuny2QgaAmgHEALw_wcB

Anyway, while I was throwing in the low 160s in the discus and low 50-foot range in the shot put, when I got this book it was toward the middle of the season so it was a bit rushed. But I dove in immediately. 

Within two weeks I was at 168’ and then at the end of the season, I won state in Texas (not an easy feat with a state of 25 million people)  with a personal meet best of 176’ 4 1/2 inches. I beat my best throw of my junior year by 26’. Not only that but I went to state in the shot put. Most definitely my weak event and threw my personal best there. It was my best throw by about a foot which is a huge jump in that event ending up at 55’. Just a couple of inches from our school record. Not an accomplishment that would have ever happened without this book. 

i apologize. I went out on a tangent a bit there but I’m talking about this book and this visualization topic because it’s real and I know it can make a difference in your life and your practice. 

Listeners of this podcast know I’m not a hippy-dippy kind of dude. This isn’t a hippy-dippy thing. It’s real and I’ve experienced it. This book is meant for business as well. I encourage you to check it out yourself. 

That 30 For 30 is my favorite. It’s very inspiring and he has some great quotes in the show. You can Google his quotes as well to save some time. But, in one part, he was quoting Ralph Waldo Emerson and the quote was, “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”

For many of us, 2020 and COVID stole our enthusiasm. If you take Emerson at his word here, then that would mean that 2020 and COVID also stole our greatness. 

I want to encourage the listeners of the Chiropractic Forward Podcast to get your enthusiasm back. Get your greatness back. Do it right now. Make it a priority. Make it a foundation of your practice this month and let’s see what happens. 

Pass it down to your staff. Keep them pumped up. Even when or if numbers are down. My numbers are down. I’ve made no secret about that. But around here, we’re going to make enthusiasm a key ingredient of our values. Along with honesty, integrity, ethics, love, fun, and being evidence-based and patient-centered. When we add enthusiasm into that mix, I think we have a winning concoction. 

This discussion portion was meant to only deal with enthusiasm but I got to talking about Jimmy V and his visualization efforts and like an ADD guy, I saw a squirrel and just went that direction. Thank you for indulging me. I hope you found something helpful in it all. 

 em today. I first want to say that I am not against surgery for the right person and the right issue. If it’s needed and the last resort, well why the hell not? But a stat I came across a year or so ago said that out of the 56 million back pain sufferers in our country, only about 5% of them actually, truly, clinically need surgery. 

Then, as you’ll see, when you have something as invasive and impactful on life as lumbar fusion being performed so often with no improved overall outcomes on the back end of it all….well, don’t you have to be responsible and step back and take another look at that and ask yourself, what are we as surgeons doing this for, and should we continue?

Item #1

This first one today is called “Is Lumbar Fusion Necessary for Chronic Low Back Pain Associated with Degenerative Disk Disease? A Meta-Analysis” by Xu et. al. (Xu W 2020) and published in World Neurosurgery on November 27, 2020. 

Hot potato, hot potato, get ‘em while they’re good and hot!

Why They Did It

The authors wanted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of lumbar fusion versus nonoperative care for the treatment of chronic low back pain associated with degenerative disk disease.

Remember this is a meta-analysis. It’s right up there at the top of the research pyramid with systematic reviews. Meaning….it’s good stuff.

How They Did It

  • They did a comprehensive duplicate electronic database search that included PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure. 
  • They took studies published up to June 30, 2020
  • The main outcomes including clinical results, complications, and all-cause additional surgeries were presented in the form of short and long-term follow-up results. 
  • Six prospective studies involving 159 patients for short-term follow-up and 675 for long-term follow-up were included.

What They Found

  • The 2 interventions exhibited little difference in regard to short- and long-term Oswestry Disability Index and visual analog scale scores for back and leg pain, 
  • Lumbar fusion might bring about lower additional surgery rate 
  • Lumbar fusion might bring about a higher complication rate in the long term.

Wrap It Up

“The present meta-analysis determined that fusion surgery was no better than nonoperative treatment in terms of the pain and disability outcomes at either short- or long-term follow-up. It is necessary for clinicians to weigh the risk of complications associated with fusion surgery against additional surgeries after nonoperative treatment. Considering lax patient inclusion criteria in the existing randomized clinical trials, the result needs to be further confirmed by high-quality research with stricter selection criteria in the future.”

So, since we know systematic reviews and meta-analyses are like computers, then we know that they are only as good as the data you put into it. What you put into it determines what you get out of it. If they haven’t done a lot of quality research on low back fusions, well then they won’t have a lot of good quality information to assemble a meta-analysis. Right? 

When we look at 6 studies with 159 patients for the short-term part and we have 675 patients for the long-term…..I’m not a researcher but, to me, that sure doesn’t seem like a huge sample size. Certainly not when you consider the number of lumbar fusions happening around the world every single day. For such an expensive and invasive surgery, you’d sure think there’d be more to go on out there for a project like this. Is it just me?

CHIROUP ADVERTISEMENT

Item #1 was a new paper. Now I want to re-visit a couple of papers we have covered on the podcast before. One in episode 144 and one all the way back in Episode 54. 

Item #2

Item #2 is titled “Lumbar Spine Fusion: What Is The Evidence?” by Harris et. al(Harris I 2018). and published in the Journal of Internal Medicine in 2018. 

Basically, in this paper, they say that lumbar spinal fusion is common and associated with the high cost and a risk of serious adverse events. They state that they aim to summarize systematic reviews on the effectiveness of lumbar spine fusion for most diagnoses. 

Of important note is where they say that they found NO high-quality systematic reviews and the risk of bias of the randomized controlled trials they found was generally high. For something as serious as lumbar fusion surgery. Where they cut into the body, take two vertebrae that usually aren’t unstable on each other, and then drive screws into them and affix hardware to fuse them together forever and ever amen. 

No high-quality systematic reviews for lumbar fusion surgery and the RCTs out there generally carry a high risk of bias. 

Doesn’t that just give you a warm fuzzy feeling inside when a surgery like lumbar fusion doesn’t have a lot backing it?

They go on to say that the available evidence doesn’t support a clinical benefit from lumbar fusion surgery compared to non-operative treatment or stabilization without fusion for thoracolumbar burst fractures. 

They say that surgical intervention for metastatic carcinoma of the spine associated with spinal cord compromise improves mobility and neurological outcome. That was based on a single trial. 

Item #3

This one we covered in episode 144 is called, “Surgery for chronic musculoskeletal pain: the question of evidence” authored by Harris et. al(Harris IA 2020). and published in Pain Journal in September of 2020.

Why They Did It 

They say that globally, the most common reasons surgery is performed relate to the musculoskeletal system, and outside of injury, the most common reasons pertain to arthritis and back or neck pain. AKA – chronic pain. Chronic pain has become a special interest of mine after going through the orthopedic diplomat last year. It’s fascinating. 

They say, “Although the surgical treatment of chronic pain generally relies on attributing pain to objective, often visible changes on imaging studies, the causes of chronic pain are more complex and are strongly influenced by psychosocial factors.” 

Things like Yellow Flags. Go look up yellow flags and Annie O’Connor’s book called World Of Pain please and thank you.  Annie will be speaking at the Texas Chiropractic Association’s Winter Conference on March 5-6. I encourage you to be watching out on www.chirotexas.org for more info because you’ll be able to take this seminar from anywhere in the world. And I recommend you do because my hero, Dr. Anthony Nicholson from Australia will be one of the presenters. Dr. Carlo Amendolia, I will be a speaker at this thing, Dr. Brandon Steele, and Dr. Jay Greenstein as well. This is quite the conference getting put together, folks. So make your plans. 

They say that surgeries like debridement of degenerative joints and things of that nature ignore the complexity of chronic pain. They look at surgery as purely mechanistic in nature with little to no involvement otherwise and the procedures often rely on observational evidence only, rather than rigorous, comparative trials.  

In addition, they say that when the trials have actually been performed for these surgeries have been mostly subjective and measurements are usually not blinded to reduce the bias of the outcomes.  

Who really wants to go under the knife for anything other than having a mole cut off when the procedures have not been thoroughly investigated, researched, and tested? 

Uh hell no. No thank you. 

This paper was written to demonstrate that observational evidence is not adequate when you consider the costs and risks of surgical intervention. They advocate that surgical procedures should undergo randomized controlled trials with blinding and showing statistical and clinically important symptomatic improvement when compared to no surgery at all.  

Well no duh. Who on Earth would put something into widespread use….surgically that is…..without doing their due diligence through research? Well…..evidently everyone in the medical profession from this.  

Ultimately in this paper, the goal here was to quantify what kind of support exists in the literature for some common procedures.  

How They Did It

  • The first thing to do was to identify the common procedures performed for chronic pain
  • Secondly, they had to identify the number of published RCTs comparing each procedure to a control group treated without that procedure
  • They did a search of the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials
  • Each paper was reviewed by two independent authors

What They Found

  • A very low proportion of the RCTs on the selected procedures compared the procedure to not performing the procedure. 64 from the more than 6,735 studies. Less than 1% if you’re keeping track. Is that not stunning? And infuriating?
  • Of those 64, only 9 were favorable to surgery. 
  • When considering individual surgical procedures, the majority of comparative trials did not favor surgery 
  • None of the studies using patient blinding for any procedure found it to be significantly better than not having the surgery at all. 

Wrap It Up We conclude that many common surgical procedures performed for musculoskeletal conditions causing chronic pain have not been subjected to randomized trials comparing them to not performing the procedure. 

Based on the observation that when such studies have been performed, only 14% (on average) showed a statistically significant and clinically important benefit to surgery; there is a need to produce such high-quality evidence to determine the effectiveness of many common surgical procedures.  

Furthermore, the production of high-quality evidence should be a requirement before widespread implementation, funding or professional acceptance of such procedures, rather than the current practice of either performing trials after procedures have become commonplace, or not performing comparative trials at all.” 

Wouldn’t you like to know that your mom’s spinal surgery procedure was fully vetted? It was researched against not doing it at all? They haven’t done that? 

Make memes and/or infographics from the sound bites I’ve given you here. You can use all of this stuff if you have a little imagination. 

Alright, that’s it. Y’all be safe. Keep changing our profession from your little corner of the world. Keep taking care of yourselves and everyone around you. Tough times are upon us but, the sun will shine again. Trust it, believe it, count on it.

Let’s get to the message. Same as it is every week. 

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The Message

I want you to know with absolute certainty that when Chiropractic is at its best, you can’t beat the risk vs reward ratio because spinal pain is primarily a movement-related pain and typically responds better to movement-related treatment rather than chemical treatments like pills and shots.

When compared to the traditional medical model, research and clinical experience show us patients can get good to excellent results for headaches, neck pain, back pain, and joint pain to name just a few.

It’s safe and cost-effective can decrease surgeries & disability and we do it through conservative, non-surgical means with minimal hassle to the patient.

And, if the patient treats preventatively after initial recovery, we can usually keep it that way while raising the overall level of health!

Key Point:

At the end of the day, patients should have the guarantee of having the best treatment that offers the least harm. When it comes to non-complicated musculoskeletal complaints….

That’s Chiropractic!

Contact

Send us an email at dr dot williams at chiropracticforward.com and let us know what you think of our show and tell us your suggestions for future episodes. 

Feedback and constructive criticism is a blessing and so are subscribes and excellent reviews on podcast platforms. 

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Connect

We can’t wait to connect with you again next week. From the Chiropractic Forward Podcast flight deck, this is Dr. Jeff Williams saying upward, onward, and forward.

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About the Author & Host

Dr. Jeff Williams – Fellow of the International Academy of Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine – Chiropractor in Amarillo, TX, Chiropractic Advocate, Author, Entrepreneur, Educator, Businessman, Marketer, and Healthcare Blogger & Vlogger

 

 

Bibliography

  • Harris I, T. A., Stanford R, (2018). “Lumbar spine fusion: what is the evidence?” Internal Med J.
  • Harris IA, S. V., Mittal R, Adie S, (2020). “Surgery for chronic musculoskeletal pain: the questions of evidence.” Pain 161(9): S95-S103.
  • Xu W, R. B., Luo W, Li Z, Gu R, (2020). “Is Lumbar Fusion Necessary for Chronic Low Back Pain Associated with Degenerative Disk Disease? A Meta-Analysis.” World Neurosurg 146: 298-306.
Evidence-based Chiropractic Podcast

Common Surgeries Aren’t Well-Researched & Chiropractic Wins Again

September 24, 2020 chiropracticforward Surgery 0:28:09 0 Comments
CF 144: Common Surgeries Aren’t Well-Researched & Chiropractic Wins Again Today we’re going to talk about how some of the most common musculoskeletal surgeries aren’t very well-researched and we’ll talk about how chiropractic performs when lined up with multidisciplinary treatment.  But first, here’s that sweet sweet bumper music  
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  OK, we are back and you have found the Chiropractic Forward Podcast where we are making evidence-based chiropractic fun, profitable, and accessible while we make you and your patients better all the way around.  We’re the fun kind of research. Not the stuffy, high-brow kind of research. We’re research talk over a couple of beers. I’m Dr. Jeff Williams and I’m your host for the Chiropractic Forward podcast.   If you haven’t yet I have a few things you should do. 
  • Like our Facebook page, 
  • Join our private Facebook group and interact, and then 
  • go review our podcast on iTunes and other podcast platforms. 
  • We also have an evidence-based brochure and poster store at chiropracticforward.com
  • While you’re there, join our weekly email newsletter. No spam, just a reminder when the newest episodes go live. Nothing special so don’t worry about signing up. Just one a week friends. Check your JUNK folder!!
Do it do it do it.  You have found yourself smack dab in the middle of Episode #144 Now if you missed last week’s episode, we talked about a new paper that came out in JAMA that said spinal manipulative therapy doesn’t work and what our research experts have to say about that and what my big mouth has to say about it. Make sure you don’t miss that info. Keep up with the class. There may come a time you need to take a stance on that.  While we’re on the topic of being smart, did you know that you can use our website as a resource? Quick and easy, you can go to chiropracticforward.com, click on Episodes, and use the search function to find whatever you want quickly and easily. With over 100 episodes in the tank and an average of 2-3 papers covered per episode, we have somewhere between 250 and 300 papers that can be quickly referenced along with their talking points.  Just so you know, all of the research we talk about in each episode is cited in the show notes for each episode if you’re looking to dive in a little deeper.  On the personal end of things….. I’m trudging through the designated doctor program here in Texas to assess the extent of the injury, return to work, and all of that fun fun stuff. I’m not even sure why I’m doing it. Just to have back up plans. I like multiple streams and I like options. If I get as busy as I was in 2019, I’ll never have the need for it. If it stays where I’m at – 75% of where I was, well it may be something I entertain.  Either way, will it make me a better doctor for personal injuries, work comp, and all patients in general? Hell yeah, it will. Even if I never use it for a DD exam, I’ll be a better doc after going through it. Guaranteed. Even if I don’t pass the damn test!! Which I hear is stupid and has nothing to do with the curriculum. Even if I fail the test, I’ll be better.  It is slowly cooling off here in the Texas Panhandle. While I realize we just went through the longest Spring and Summer known to mankind, I’m going to miss it. Despite all that went into making it the longest Spring and SUmmer ever….I’m going to miss the aspect of time slowing down, sitting on the back patio with my wife, dinner outside in the outdoor kitchen, swimming in the pool, and just being warm in general.  Oh, how I despise the cold weather. Lol. Here’s where you Northerners call me a pansy but….it’s like needles when the cold wind blows. I grew up a couple of hours north of where I live now and there was a difference in weather. At times, it would get bone-chilling cold growing up. I would take a shower in the morning before school, drive there and park, and walk into the school. My wet hair from showering would freeze before I got into the building. Now that’s cold, folks.  I grew up with that, yes, even in Texas. My hometown is called Perryton, TX and it’s only 7 miles from the tiny little strip of Oklahoma and it’s about 45 miles from Kansas. So, it’s not deep in the heart of Texas. It’s way up North.  My point is, I went to school down in Natchitoches, Louisiana, and then lived in Dallas for about 6 years before relocating back to the Texas Panhandle and Amarillo, TX.  Having not been in the cold cold for 8-10 years got me spoiled to the point that I can’t even tolerate cold weather anymore. At all. For any reason. It borderline pisses me off.  Everything dies, it’s cold, it’s windy, people are all yay about pumpkin spice crap, my bones ache a bit, and I’m bitchy 2/3 of the time.  I’m just warning you all, this is what you get to look forward to dealing with for the next 3-4 months. My whiny butt being all cold-weather fussy. But here’s the saving grace and the best thing since sliced bread; the remote start vehicle.  Yes, as any good Texan, I have a pickup and that dude has remote start with defrost and heated seats. You damn right. This is the ONE thing that has made Winter somewhat tolerable for me and, being a good Christian, I thank God and the car companies on the frigid mornings for blessing us all with such wonderous inventions like the remote start.  Now, I don’t want you North Dakota or Canadian friends of mine rolling your eyes too hard at me here. I’m sure you’d melt down here in TX in the Summers so…..we agree to play to our strengths and roll on down the road. Trust me, go through two-a-days in college in Louisiana and tell me how tough you are. Lol. Something you don’t see on TV when you watch football is the humidity. It’s REAL.  I went from three-a-days at one college playing football here in the Texas Panhandle to two-a-days in Louisiana. Not a problem by anyone in the Panhandle but in Lousiana, it looked like a battlefield with players dropping left and right with cramps and having to get IVs there on the practice field….it was insane. So, I’m cold intolerant but I can handle the other end of it. Don’t be too hard on me. Lol.  What does all of this have to do with chiropractic and research? Not a damn thing. Just a little bit of fun rambling and brain dump.  Let’s get on with the real reason we’re here. Item #1 This first one came to me from Dr. Craig Benton, one of my buddies, down in Lampasas, TX where it’s always a bit balmy almost year-round. It’s called “Integrating a multidisciplinary pain team and chiropractic care in a community health center: an observational study of managing chronic spinal pain” by Prater et. al(Prater C 2020). and published in Journal of Primary Care & Community Health on September 10th of 2020. Holy smokin scorchin’ blaze of newness! Look, y’all should know how I feel about chronic pain by now. This is right down my alley. Not a dark alley. No, one that’s lit up like an airport runway. Bright alley.  Why They Did It They say that chronic pain is one of the most common diseases in the US with the underserved population being most affected for obvious reasons. They say the underserved are at more risk of opioid misuse or overuse since they lack therapeutic access otherwise. For this reason, they are looking for other avenues to provide treatment to chronic pain sufferers.  How They Did It
  • This was a prospective observational pilot study
  • Held at a community health center
  • Measured the effectiveness of two interventions among the underserved population
  • The two interventions were 
  • Multidisciplinary team
  • Chiropractic care
  • The outcomes measured were pain and functional disability measured via the Pain Disability Questionnaire and reduction of opioid dosage at 6 and 12 months. 
  • 35 folks complete baseline and follow-up outcome measures from August 2018 to May 2020
Wrap It Up A key finding was quote, “Participants in the chiropractic team and those completing the study before COVID-19 were found to have significantly greater improvement at follow-up.” Well isn’t that sexy? Indeed.  “This observational study within a community health center resulted in improvement in spinal pain and disability with chiropractic care versus a multidisciplinary pain team. Offering similar services in primary care may help to address pain and disability, and hopefully limit external referrals, advanced imaging, and opioid prescriptions.” This was a pilot study with small sample size. Nothing to do backflips about but it’s a start down this path or thinking and learning so hopefully, we’ll see some very cool and very positive things for the chiropractic profession down the line if papers like this continue to come out. Before we get to the next paper, I want to tell you a little about this new tool on the market called Drop Release. I love new toys! If you’re into soft tissue work, then it’s your new best friend. Heck if you’re just into getting more range of motion in your patients, then it’s your new best friend. Drop Release uses fast stretch to stimulate the Golgi Tendon Organ reflex.  Which causes instant and dramatic muscle relaxation and can restore full ROM to restricted joints like shoulders and hips in seconds.   Picture a T bar with a built-in drop piece.  This greatly reduces the time needed for soft tissue treatment, leaving more time for other treatments per visit, or more patients per day.  Drop Release is like nothing else out there, and you almost gotta see it to understand, so check out the videos on the website. It’s inventor, Dr. Chris Howson, from the great state of North Dakota, is a listener and friend. He offered our listeners a great discount on his product. When you order, if you put in the code ‘HOTSTUFF’ all one word….as in hot stuff….coming up!! If you enter HOTSTUFF in the coupon code area, Dr. Howson will give you $50 off of your purchase. Go check Drop Release at droprelease.com and tell Dr. Howson I sent you. Item #2 I think I got this one from Dr. Craig Benton as well. Dr. Benton is a former guest of this podcast. Sounds like we need to have him back on. He’s my Allstar this week. Thank you, Dr. Benton. For keeping me in business and helping me keep everyone, including myself, educated.  This one is called, “Surgery for chronic musculoskeletal pain: the question of evidence” authored by Harris et. al(Harris IA 2020). and published in Pain Journal in September of 2020. Blisters!!! I got blisters on my fingers!!! You Beatles fans…..you’ll get it.  Why They Did It They say that globally, the most common reasons surgery is performed relate to the musculoskeletal system, and outside of injury, the most common reasons pertain to arthritis and back or neck pain. AKA – chronic pain. Yes, I love me some chronic pain people! Not suffering from it. Learning about it and treating it.  They say, “Although the surgical treatment of chronic pain generally relies on attributing pain to objective, often visible changes on imaging studies, the causes of chronic pain are more complex and are strongly influenced by psychosocial factors.” Things like Yellow Flags. Go look up yellow flags and Annie O’Connor’s book called World Of Pain please and thank you.  They say that surgeries like debridement of degenerative joints and things of that nature ignore the complexity of chronic pain. They look at surgery as purely mechanistic in nature with little to no involvement otherwise and the procedures often rely on observational evidence only, rather than rigorous, comparative trials.  In addition, they say that when the trials have actually been performed for these surgeries have been mostly subjective and measurements are usually not blinded to reduce the bias of the outcomes.  Do you want yourself or loved ones cut into when the procedure has not been thoroughly investigated, researched, and tested? Uh hell no. No thank you.  This paper was written to demonstrate that observational evidence is not adequate when you consider the costs and risks of surgical intervention. They advocate surgical procedures that should undergo randomized controlled trials with blinding and showing statistical and clinically important symptomatic improvement when compared to no surgery at all.  Wouldn’t you expect that they already do this???? Evidently not. At all, really.  Ultimately in this paper the goal here was to quantify what kind of support exists in the literature for some common procedures.  How They Did It
  • The first thing to do was identify the common procedures performed for chronic pain
  • Secondly, they had to identify the number of published RCTs comparing each procedure to a control group treated without that procedure
  • They did a search of the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials
  • Each paper was reviewed by two independent authors
pastedGraphic.png What They Found
  • A very low proportion of the RCTs on the selected procedures compared the procedure to not performing the procedure. 64 from the more than 6,735 studies. Less than 1% if you’re keeping track. Is that not stunning? And infuriating?
  • Of those 64, only 9 were favorable to surgery. 
  • When considering individual surgical procedures, the majority of comparative trials did not favor surgery 
  • None of the studies using patient blinding for any procedure found it to be significantly better than not having the surgery at all. 
Wrap It Up We conclude that many common surgical procedures performed for musculoskeletal conditions causing chronic pain have not been subjected to randomized trials comparing them to not performing the procedure. Based on the observation that when such studies have been performed, only 14% (on average) showed a statistically significant and clinically important benefit to surgery; there is a need to produce such high-quality evidence to determine the effectiveness of many common surgical procedures.  Furthermore, the production of high-quality evidence should be a requirement before widespread implementation, funding or professional acceptance of such procedures, rather than the current practice of either performing trials after procedures have become commonplace, or not performing comparative trials at all.” Wouldn’t you like it in the year 2020, when we hear bragging about the amazing advances of medical wonders and technology, and sometimes rightfully so…..would you like it if these things that should go unsaid are actually done? Wouldn’t you like to know that your mom’s spinal surgery procedure was fully vetted? It was researched against not doing it at all? They haven’t done that? Seriously? Look, ever heard of phantom limb pain? Just in case, it’s where a limb is amputated. Cut off completely. Yet, it still hurts. Why the hell does something that is gone and no longer exists still hurt? It’s because chronic pain lives as much or more in the brain as it lives in a peripheral source.  So, if you go in and do surgery on arthritis for a chronic pain sufferer, what are the real chances that you got rid of that pain? How many people have arthritis that commonly doesn’t bother them much at all beyond the first 15 or so minutes after they wake up? The answer isn’t precise but it’s probably a hell of a lot if I’m placing bets.  Did you know that if a person has surgery and they’re in chronic pain syndrome that even if the surgery goes perfectly, they will still have a 60% chance of developing pain at the new site of surgery? That’s what happens when you have a sensitized or upregulated central nervous system. It’s on high alert and using pain to make your future decisions and to protect you. You have to turn the volume down on the central nervous system if you’re ever going to control the pain in the brain. It’s actually the MOST IMPORTANT aspect of treating chronic pain.  How many people get surgery when they don’t need it because the arthritis isn’t really the issue. When the issue actually lies withing the limbic system in the brain? To be fair, how many people get adjusted by the chiropractor a million times because they’re trying to pop out the pain? Hell, doing that a million times only deepens the issue.  Don’t get me wrong, there’s SMT benefit in regard to proprioceptive input, sensorimotor function, movement dysfunction, blood flow, and pain modulation but…..beyond a certain point, it will create instability and that will deepen the issue.  I tell new chronic patients that we treat this issue through a combined approach. They must be approaching the issue from a cognitive aspect simultaneously with my physical treatment as well as the exercise/rehab. If we have that comprehensive, three-pronged approach to their condition, we are going to stand a much better chance at getting this sucker under control.  If you’re adjusting and sending them out the door, that’s low-level and borderline ineffective at best. At the worst, with too many appointments, you compound the issue by adding spinal instability to the mix. Too many chiropractors and subluxation slayers just do not understand this concept. They think they’re being specific. The research is pretty clear. You’re adjusting segments at a time. Not one. You’re not that good.  Alright, that’s it. Y’all be safe. Keep changing the world and our profession from your little corner of the world. Continue taking care of yourselves and taking care of your neighbors. Tough times are upon us but, the sun will shine again. Trust it, believe it, count on it. Let’s get to the message. Same as it is every week.  Store Remember the evidence-informed brochures and posters at chiropracticforward.com.   
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The Message I want you to know with absolute certainty that when Chiropractic is at its best, you can’t beat the risk vs reward ratio because spinal pain is primarily a movement-related pain and typically responds better to movement-related treatment rather than chemical treatments like pills and shots. When compared to the traditional medical model, research and clinical experience show us patients can get good to excellent results for headaches, neck pain, back pain, and joint pain to name just a few. It’s safe and cost-effective can decrease surgeries & disability and we do it through conservative, non-surgical means with minimal hassle to the patient. And, if the patient treats preventatively after initial recovery, we can usually keep it that way while raising the overall level of health! Key Point: At the end of the day, patients should have the guarantee of having the best treatment that offers the least harm. When it comes to non-complicated musculoskeletal complaints…. That’s Chiropractic! Contact Send us an email at dr dot williams at chiropracticforward.com and let us know what you think of our show and tell us your suggestions for future episodes.  Feedback and constructive criticism is a blessing and so subscribe and excellent reviews on podcast platforms.  We know how this works by now. If you value something, you have to share it, interact with it, review it, talk about it from time to time, and actively hit a few buttons to support it here and there when asked. It really does make a big difference.  Connect We can’t wait to connect with you again next week. From the Chiropractic Forward Podcast flight deck, this is Dr. Jeff Williams saying upward, onward, and forward. Website
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Social Media Links https://www.facebook.com/chiropracticforward/ Chiropractic Forward Podcast Facebook GROUP https://www.facebook.com/groups/1938461399501889/ Twitter YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtc-IrhlK19hWlhaOGld76Q iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/chiropractic-forward-podcast-chiropractors-practicing/id1331554445?mt=2 Player FM Link https://player.fm/series/2291021 Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-chiropractic-forward-podcast-chiropractors-practicing-through TuneIn https://tunein.com/podcasts/Health–Wellness-Podcasts/The-Chiropractic-Forward-Podcast-Chiropractors-Pr-p1089415/ About the Author & Host Dr. Jeff Williams – Fellow of the International Academy of Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine – Chiropractor in Amarillo, TX, Chiropractic Advocate, Author, Entrepreneur, Educator, Businessman, Marketer, and Healthcare Blogger & Vlogger   Bibliography
  • Harris IA, S. V., Mittal R, Adie S, (2020). “Surgery for chronic musculoskeletal pain: the questions of evidence.” Pain 161(9): S95-S103.
  • Prater C, T. M., Battaglia P, (2020). “Integrating a Multidisciplinary Pain Team and Chiropractic Care in a Community Health Center: An Observational Study of Managing Chronic Spinal Pain.” Journal of Primary Care & Community Health.