Diagnosing the exact cause of your back pain demands great expertise because there are so many possibilities. For example, your pain could be caused by an injury to the joints, the discs, the ligaments or the muscles—or a combination of these structures. That’s why the Spine Institute’s highly trained doctors focus exclusively on care of the spine. In addition, the Institute uses the most technologically advanced equipment to pinpoint the exact cause of your back pain.

When you seek medical help for back pain, the physician first takes a complete history. This history includes your general medical condition and your individual lifestyle. Specific, spine-related issues of concern include your symptoms, their onset and progression, the location and severity of the pain, what home treatments you have used, what kind of work you do, etc. A complete physical exam follows. After the history and physical, the doctor will typically order one of more of the following diagnostic tests to precisely identify the cause of your back pain.

Doctors at the Spine Institute of New York diagnose and treat the wide variety of spine conditions and injuries that may cause you pain or other symptoms. Although spine conditions vary greatly in severity, only 5 to 10% of all cases require surgery. Since symptoms of various spinal conditions and injuries may overlap, however, diagnosing the specific cause of back pain requires careful examination. Spine Institute of New York offers both state-of-the-art diagnostic facilities and a knowledgeable and experienced team of orthopedists. At the Spine Institute, you can be sure that your condition will be correctly diagnosed--a crucial first step in receiving proper treatment and care.