Spine Pain and Spine Injury

Advanced Procedures to Diagnose and Treat Spine Pain and Injury

Accidents, strains, tumors, injuries and degenerative diseases can lead to pain or other problems in your back, neck and other parts of your body. These problems may make it difficult for you to continue your day-to-day activities.

Loyola Medicine’s spine specialists provide personalized treatment plans for patients with spine pain and injuries. Our spine program includes a multidisciplinary team of neurologists, neurosurgeons and orthopaedic surgeons, as well as radiologists, physical and occupational therapists and nurses.

We diagnose and treat the full array of spinal conditions in adults and children, including:

Why Choose Loyola for Treatment of Spine Pain and Injury?

Loyola’s experienced, multidisciplinary team will coordinate your care to ensure complete and convenient treatment. We offer many non-surgical treatment options, including injections, nerve blocks and spinal cord stimulation.

Loyola’s spine program offers patients the benefit of a highly skilled orthopaedics team and many advanced technologies, such as spinal endoscopy and real-time imaging and assessments during minimally invasive surgery. Our use of minimally invasive, computer-assisted spinal fusions has launched a new era in complex spine surgery. Loyola’s spine surgeons use computer-assisted X-ray technology (spinal angiogram) to see your spine during surgery.

How is Spine Pain and Injury Diagnosed?

A problem in the spine may be discovered because of symptoms such as pain or tingling in various parts of the body, weakness, difficulty walking or loss of bladder or bowel control.

The causes of back and neck pain can be complex. Your Loyola orthopaedic surgeon will take a complete medical history and a physical exam and order any tests needed to further understand your condition; this may include an X-ray, CT scan (computed tomography) or MRI (magnetic resonance imaging).

Getting an accurate understanding of the cause of your pain or injury is the first step in developing a treatment program.

How is Spine Pain and Injury Treated?

Many cases of spine pain and injury can be treated conservatively using rest, reduced activities and exercises. Sometimes, you may need anti-inflammatory medicines, steroid injections, nerve blocks and pain control medicines.

If your condition requires spine surgery, Loyola offers one of the most experienced surgical teams in the Chicago area. Your Loyola spine surgeon will consider a range of advanced treatment options depending on your condition. Your surgical spine treatment may include:

Whenever possible, your Loyola healthcare team will recommend minimally invasive techniques to ensure less pain, less blood loss and a faster recovery than traditional surgical techniques.

Ongoing Research for Spine Abnormalities and Spinal Cord Injuries

Basic research in the spinal cord injury repair laboratory at Loyola involves exploration of novel treatments for craniocervical abnormalities, experimental transplantation of neutrophils in spinal cord injury, stem cell transplants and molecular events in the adult injured spinal cord.