CAN CHIROPRACTIC BE USED SAFELY ON BACK SURGERY AND HEART BYPASS SURGERY PATIENTS?
Yes. Chiropractors do not adjust or interfere with the area of the spine that has been surgically changed but do treat, massage and adjust other levels of the spine and body involving compensatory stiffness and pain. Chiropractic treatment can loosen and free up post surgery scar tissue to help keep the spinal articulations movable and less stiff and painful. Heart bypass surgery patients have special needs because the ribs were spread to expose the heart during surgery, tearing the fibrous and ligamentous structures of the joint between the ribs and spine (costo-vertebral and costo-sternum articulations). After the surgery, scar tissue develops in the costo-vertebral joints and can degenerate into arthritic type pain and bony fusion of the ribs and spine causing stiffening of the thoracic spine and ribs and limiting expansion of your chest during respiration. Chiropractic treatment and adjustments are necessary to prevent this bony fusion process from occurring in your body. Examinati
