Expanding the VA Chiropractic Residency

The Veteran's Administration has operated a chiropractic residency program at five VA hospitals since 2016. They are now expanding the program to five more hospitals. This will give these DC's skills to practice in hospital and other medical settings.
Do you see benefit in chiropractors treating patients in the hospital?
https://www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/article.php…Expanding the VA Chiropractic Residency

Joint injections of cortisone may not be safe

The extremely common procedure of injection of cortisone into joints has until recently been considered safe if not overused. New evidence is showing that may not be true. A new study in the journal Radiology showed that 8% of patients who had injections in the hips or knees had complications that worsened the state of the joint. Recent studies show little or no benefit. The American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons do not recommend them.
A Warning From a Doctor Who Has Done Thousands of Steroid Injections for Arthritis

Do Epidural Steroid Injections Help Lower Back Pain?

This is a recent review study from the Annals of Internal Medicine of 30 previous epidural steroid injection studies. It showed only mild temporay benefit overall and no benefit for spinal stenosis (narrowing of the spine).“ESIs are high cost, low value health care,” said Terri Lewis, Ph.D, who is an expert of rehabilitation medicine.
Do you think it would be rational to use more conservative treatments for these patients such as chiropractic and/or physical therapy?

http://nationalpainreport.com/do-epidural-steroid-injections-help-lower-back-pain-8827256.html

Take the Sting Out of Sciatica

I treat patients with sciatica every day at my clinic. As an avid cyclist, I thought I would post the findings of this new study from Finland which studied 35,000 people. They found a 33% decrease of hospitalization for sciatica in bikers and walkers. This contrasts with a 33% increase with obesity and a significant increase with smoking.
This was an observational study so it cannot show causation, but there are still many documented benefits of exercise on back disorders including sciatica to make it a very worthwhile habit.
Has anyone felt that exercise helped them with a back disorder including sciatica?
Take the Sting Out of Sciatica

Ohio Work Comp Clamps Down on Spine Surgery

The Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation has issued a rule change regarding payment for lumbar fusion surgery, effective Jan. 1, 2018, that in most cases only authorizes surgery after the injured worker has received at least 60 days of conservative care for low back pain. 
This was done after several of their data studies found fusion patients suffered considerably worse outcomes than non-fusion patients. The conservative care can consist of chiropractic or physical therapy or other non surgical treatments.
Do you think this is a good new policy?

Ohio Work Comp Clamps Down on Spine Surgery

Surgery Not Better for Spine Narrowing, Study Finds

Have seen this result often from surgery studies over the last recent years. This new study is from the prestigious Spine Journal. Long term studies often show no benefit for surgery over non surgery treatment. That is one of the reasons I treat so many patients who have had spinal surgery. I often hear that the pain was lessened after the surgery but then returned.
Has anyone been through this scenario?

Surgery Not Better for Spine Narrowing, Study Finds

Chiropractic Procedures Found Beneficial for Spinal Stenosis

Spinal stenosis is a fancy medical term for narrowing spinal canal and/or the holes in which the nerves exit the spine and can be congenital or secondary to spinal arthritis. It is becoming more common with the increasing age of the population and is a common reason for spinal surgery. Symptoms can include back pain, leg pain and/or numbness, leg weakness, and difficulty walking. Here is a now study showing significant improvement for the condition with chiropractic procedures.
Has anyone had treatment for spinal stenosis?

http://gethealthyblog.org/significant-and-clinically-meaningful-improvement-in-patient-rated-improvement-and-disability/