Use Intermountain Connect Care®
Learn More.
Your care team will ask you about the following:
Mention these or any other unusual change or symptom to your care team. Even if it seems unrelated to your spine or doesn’t bother you, it will help your providers get a more complete picture.
In a physical exam, your doctor will check your body and its movement. Your doctor may note:
Sometimes back and neck symptoms can be caused by, or made worse by a systemic illness (an illness throughout your body, not just in your spine). To check for illness, your doctor may request a test of a sample of your blood or urine.
There are several technologies that allow your spine team to take pictures of the inside your body. In some instances, you may have already done these studies. Depending on how long ago that was, or the quality of the images, you may be asked to have repeat studies. They may suggest one of the following imaging studies:
The term “electrodiagnostic testing” covers a range of tests that measure electrical activity in nerves and muscles. Two common electrodiagnostic tests are the electromyogram (EMG) and the nerve conduction study (NCS). Results from these tests help your doctor assess nerve and muscle function and locate any damage.
Other procedures, like spinal injections and discography, may also be useful in finding sources of back pain that may not show up in common imaging studies. Your care team will provide information on these procedures as needed.