Is Surgery Your Best Option?

Surgery: Quick Fix or Best Choice

When is surgery the sole solution? It is often a quick fix to a condition that has taken years to develop, and a missed opportunity to correct a problem naturally, allowing the body to achieve its healing potential..

“In our clinics, we have a significant number of patients who were headed for surgery,” reports Dr. Brad Butler, Chief of Staff at Oakland Spine & Physical Therapy. “They experienced such significant healing and improvement that they no longer needed to have surgery,”

As many as 20 percent of all surgeries are statistically shown to be unnecessary, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a medical research agency under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. A significant number of those surgeries were performed on the spine and complex joints.

“Strikingly, in the 21st century, we still have to come to terms with the absurd reality that it is significantly safer to board a commercial airplane, a spacecraft, or a nuclear submarine, than to be admitted to a U.S. hospital,” stated a January 13, 2017, NIH report entitled, “Why Do Surgeons Continue to Perform Unnecessary Surgery?”

Medical errors ranked third among the leading causes of death behind heart disease and cancer at the time of the NIH report.

What is unnecessary surgery? The NIH defines it as surgical intervention of any kind “that is either not needed, not indicated, or not in the patient’s best interest when weighed against other available options, including conservative measures.” 

This has long been realized in chiropractic medicine, although we are not anti-surgery or other mainstream medical care by any means. We will all need it at some point in our lives and should be grateful that we have the best medical doctors in the world in our country.

We see ourselves as among the “other available options” to surgery and the use of prescription drugs. Sometimes our care is more of an intervention that works if we are able to treat patients before it is too late.

“Sadly, we also see a very significant number of people who came to us after a failed spinal surgery. In many cases, their lives are permanently affected and the possibility of having a normal life again is limited,” Dr. Butler explains. “The good news for these patients is that we can get significant improvement for them as well, but once you have spinal surgery there is no going back.”

—Call us today at (201) 651-9100 for an appointment at Oakland Spine & physical therapy.