Should Chiropractic Be in Hospitals
In a Norwegian hospital, doctors of an orthopedic department of a hospital concluded wholeheartedly that a chiropractor should be in hospitals.
Here’s what happened: Forty-four patients were diagnosed with acute sciatica and were experiencing sudden and painful low back pain. The pain started when the patients bent over and twisted simultaneously. They weren’t lifting anything at the time.
The orthopedic surgeons ordered all the essential imaging studies – the x-rays, CT scans, and MRIs but interestingly, the tests were all normal. That’s when they thought about chiropractic and called in a chiropractor. The chiropractor examined them and discovered that all had a misalignment of the spine at the level of the pelvis.
The chiropractor adjusted them – some in his office if they were able to go to his office, and the others at the hospital.
The researchers followed up with the patients two years later to see what happened. Forty-two of the forty-four patients returned to work. The patients treated by the chiropractor had two-thirds less sick time than those who were traditionally treated with conventional medical treatment.
Although this was the first time that a chiropractor ever worked with an orthopedic hospital in a Norway, chiropractic received the full support of the staff. In fact, the results of this study of chiropractic were very encouraging to the Norwegian government who had wanted to include chiropractic in their medical referrals for musculoskeletal disorders.
The researchers even commented, “Based on our experience, we believe that the inclusion of chiropractors within hospital orthopedic departments is feasible and provides a patient care resource that may benefit not only the patients but also the department as a whole.”
Hooray for chiropractic! But did you doubt it would work?
Source: Orlin, J.R. and Didriksen, A. Results of chiropractic treatment of lumbopelvic fixation in 44 patients of an orthopedic department. J Manipulative Physiol Ther 2007 Feb; 30(2):135-9.
