Chiropractic Relieves Disc Herniation Related Pain Often Without MRI

MRIs are cool. MRIs display impressive pictures of the body. Chiropractors like looking at spinal MRI images. Why? The spine is where chiropractors like your Nashua chiropractor live day in and day out. Moriarty Chiropractic appreciates the MRI image study for what it is: a a piece of the diagnostic puzzle. But MRIs are not always clinically necessary. Can MRI help determine whether a surgical or non-surgical approach is appropriate for back pain relief? Read on for the most recent news.

The Usefulness of MRI

When a Nashua patient’s back pain, neck pain, arm pain or leg pain symptoms denote the demand for an MRI, Moriarty Chiropractic requests one for such a Nashua back pain patient. MRI may add to your Nashua chiropractor’s clinical understanding of the condition oftentimes (but not always!).  Pre-treatment and post-MRI studies are interesting. Did the disc herniation shrink now that the pain is gone? Nashua chiropractic patients will often ask that of Moriarty Chiropractic. And researchers will study MRIs for their research studies on just such a question.

The Curiosity of MRI

Researchers are not the only ones who curiously study MRI images of low back pain sufferers to see if there is any correlation between pain and no pain and the MRI at the beginning and end of treatment for back pain. Patients wonder, too. Moriarty Chiropractic is well aware that our Nashua back pain patients wonder!

Knowing that doctors and patients find MRI images a curiosity when there is back pain and leg pain, some researchers set out to determine the value of MRI in predicting treatment outcomes in patients with sciatic leg pain due to a herniated lumbar disc. They questioned if MRI could help determine whether to do back surgery now or stay the course with conservative care. Moriarty Chiropractic and the Nashua chiropractic low back pain patients we care for would love such a simple guide! Study participants were randomly sent to surgical care or a course of prolonged conservative care. Two findings – a disc extrusion and nerve root compression on MRI in patients with less severe leg pain – signified a satisfactory outcome with either form of care. Another noteworthy finding:  the size of the disc herniation at the beginning of caredid not affect the outcome. There was no significant difference in outcomes between them – surgical and conservative. (1) Moriarty Chiropractic sees similar reports increasingly in the back pain research.  Recall the Atlas studies of surgical and non-surgical interventions for back pain and sciatica? There wasn’t much difference in those landmark studies either: 50% vs. 53% non-surgical vs. surgical for back pain due to spinal stenosis (2) and 69% versus 61% surgical vs. non-surgical for sciatica (3).

Moriarty Chiropractic Offers Chiropractic Non-Surgical Care of Disc Herniation

Moriarty Chiropractic encourages you to make a Nashua chiropractic appointment today. Trust Moriarty Chiropractic to provide evidence-based chiropractic care that relieves your spine pain many times without an MRI. Together, we can create a non-surgical (and even potentially non-MRI!) treatment plan to alleviate your back pain.

Schedule your Nashua chiropractic appointment now.