Can I get Chiropractic Care after Surgery?

With the amount of people that we see day-in and day-out, numerous times per year we have practice members who are scheduled for surgery and they voice concerns about their ability to get adjusted during their recovery period. Because post-surgical recovery can last weeks, practice members worry that they won’t be able to receive chiropractic treatment and that their health and past symptoms will resurface during this time.

The good news? Most often than not, we have accommodations available to our practice members that allow them to modify their chiropractic adjustment to fit their post-surgical needs. This helps them keep and continue the progress they’ve made under care so far, while still helping them recover quicker from the aches and pains associated with their surgery.

Our considerations with post-operative practice members:

The first things that we consider when it comes to someone who recently had surgery are:

Where did the person have surgery?
How recent was the surgery and how healed are the tissues?
How is the person’s mobility?

Depending on the answer to these questions, we will determine:

If the person can be adjusted at this time or if they need to wait for tissues to heal more.
If the person needs to be adjusted seated in a chair for a few visits before going back to adjustments laying on a chiropractic table.
If the person needs a few visits where they have a gentler approach to their adjustment.

Examples of people who receive chiropractic care post-surgery:

C-section moms:

Often we treat women during pregnancy and postpartum. Some of our postpartum moms desire or require cesarean surgery during the delivery process and once they have their baby, we typically get to see them within a week. If they had a c-section, most moms feel comfortable laying face down on the table, but they require that we use gentle instrument-assisted adjustments when adjusting their pelvis while the tissues heal (approximately 6 weeks or when they get the ok from their doctor). Once the tissues heal, we typically go back to using chiropractic drop tables when adjusting their pelvis.

People after surgical knee, hip, shoulder, breast, or dental procedures:

We also have numerous practice members who require the above-mentioned surgeries (as well as others). Some of these practice members require getting adjusted seated for a season before transitioning back to the chiropractic table. Other practice members, depending on where they had surgery and how invasive the procedure was, are able to lay face down, but require a gentler chiropractic approach. Reach out to your chiropractor and let them know about your surgery so that together you can determine an adjustment method that is safe and that you feel comfortable with.

Spinal fusion or other hardware surgeries:

This is another case that we often see with practice members, but instead of recently having spinal fusion surgery, they had it done years ago and they are letting us know that they have hardware in their spine (or elsewhere in their body). Because our technique involves no rotation or aggressive thrusts into the body, the only modification that we usually need to take with someone who has hardware in their spine is that we do not adjust directly over these segments. Instead, we adjust the compensating segments above and below these areas.

The most important thing:

If you had surgery or if you have a surgical procedure coming up, inform your chiropractor about the procedure. They will take the time to explain what this would mean for your adjustments and they will determine a safe way to get you adjusted.