What is neck and back trauma?
Back and neck pain because of trauma can happen to anyone at any time. Trauma can occur from a variety of things, including whiplash, mechanical stress, or workplace injuries.
How is neck and back trauma diagnosed?
As part of your comprehensive evaluation, your provider will perform a physical exam and review your medical history. With this information, they can find the source of pain and form a plan of treatment with you. Depending on your needs, you may be referred to other specialties as appropriate or recommend medications for quick relief.
After your initial back or neck pain evaluation, additional tests may be required to determine the cause of your pain and the best treatment for you.
- Diagnostic imaging, like X-ray or MRI can be helpful in finding the cause of pain by revealing areas in the neck or back where the nerves or spinal cord might be pinched by bone spurs or other problems.
- An electromyography (EMG) can help determine whether neck pain might be related to a pinched nerve.
- Blood tests can show signs of inflammation or infection that could be contributing to neck or back pain.
How is neck and back trauma treated?
Pain management is an integrated approach to making pain tolerable by learning physical, emotional, intellectual, and social skills. This may include exercise, physical therapy, medication, holistic therapies, and counseling. With these methods, we can help you stay in control of your health.
Not all patients need physical therapy, and your provider will likely recommend surgery as a last resort. The most common types of mild to moderate neck and back pain usually respond within two to three weeks of treatment. At the Iowa Clinic, our coordinated care model makes it easy to be referred to multiple specialties, all under one roof.