Comprehensive spine care for neck and back conditions

The spine is supported by the muscles, tendons, bones, nerves and other tissues that reach from your skull to your tailbone. Our spine plays a huge role in stability and mobility, and injuries or other conditions can cause painful symptoms.

HealthPartners has created TRIA Spine Care, a comprehensive program that brings together expert spine care services at Park Nicollet, TRIA and Regions Hospital. TRIA Spine Care provides a full spectrum of spine treatments, with a special focus on treating spine conditions without surgery.

While about 90% of spine conditions will go away on their own, the rest will need specialized care to help manage them. Nonsurgical treatments, like physical therapy, are scientifically proven to be the best first course of treatment for many spine issues like lower back pain, pinched nerves and arthritis of the spine. Our team is made up of some of the top physical therapists in the Midwest.

In the rare case that surgery is needed, you’re in expert hands. Our team of spine specialists includes pain management specialists, physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) doctors, orthopedic spine surgeons and neurosurgeons who have helped thousands of patients recover. We’ll always guide you to the best treatment option to help you heal and get back to the things you love.

Back pain and other spine conditions are frustrating – they hurt, limit your mobility and make it hard to get through your day. If you’re dealing with a spine issue, you’re probably wondering when you should see a doctor.

In most cases, spine issues are acute. This means that it's a short-term condition that lasts no longer than 12 weeks. Acute issues usually come on suddenly with symptoms like shooting, burning or aching pain. In these cases, at-home back pain treatment is the best place to start.

If your spine condition hasn’t gotten better after 12 weeks, it’s likely that your condition is chronic and it’s time to see a doctor. There are many different types of spine specialists who can help you, including physical therapists, nonsurgical spine doctors, orthopedic doctors, and even neurosurgeons and spine surgeons.

Most people should make their first spine appointment with a physical therapist. Our physical therapists are experts in evaluating the spine and use exercise and hands-on care to manage even the most complex spine conditions.

Seeing a physical therapist first is proven to be more cost-effective by reducing the need for injections, imaging and medications. And, studies show that starting with a physical therapist can lead to better outcomes and patient satisfaction. You do not need a referral to make an appointment with a physical therapist.

However, if you are having certain symptoms or have a history of cancer, you should start with a medical spine doctor. These symptoms include:

• Unexplained fever
• Urinary incontinence
• Unexplained weight loss
• New difficulty moving your arms or legs
• Saddle anesthesia (numbness in the butt, thighs and groin)

Neck and back pain can be caused by a number of factors, including your overall activity level. Low activity levels can cause the muscles that support the spine to weaken, sometimes causing pain, discomfort and stiffness.

Strengthening your muscles can help relieve pressure and improve spinal support, and medical evidence shows that most spine conditions can be treated with spine physical therapy. You do not need a referral to make an appointment with a physical therapist.

Our physical therapists coach you through exercises tailored to your unique needs. These may include exercises and stretches that strengthen your neck, back and core muscles, as well as improve your flexibility and mobility. We also use hands-on care to support your recovery. And we’ll teach you how to do exercises on your own so you can continue to work on a home exercise plan to keep building strength between sessions.

It usually takes about six visits to complete your treatment plan, but many people start feeling relief from their first visit.

Our physical therapists are experts in evaluating spine conditions and identifying any symptoms that may need more advanced medical care. If we determine you need care beyond what we can provide, we’ll refer you to one of our spine specialists for further care.

Nonsurgical treatments can be used as your main course of care or to complement a physical therapy plan. You’ll work closely with nonsurgical spine experts who specialize in pain management, and physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R). Our focus is to help you improve the way your body functions so you can do your daily activities and enjoy a better quality of life.

We offer a wide variety of nonsurgical treatment options, and we’ll work with you to determine which is best for your unique condition. Common nonsurgical treatments we use include anti-inflammatory medications, muscle relaxants, epidural steroid injections and several other treatments.

Nonsurgical treatment options are the cornerstone of spine treatment plans, and we’ll be by your side every step of the way as your spine health improves.

Integrative medicine is a type of holistic treatment that uses the body’s natural healing ability to relieve pain and accelerate recovery.

We offer many different types of integrative medicine that are scientifically proven to provide health benefits, including yoga therapy, acupuncture, pain management and TRIA Well consults. These types of treatments can be done alongside others to complement your care plan.

Interventional spine procedures are specialized, minimally invasive treatments for spine conditions. We use imaging technology to determine the exact location of the issue, enabling us to treat pain right at its source. This also means that we’re able to use a smaller incision, so you have a faster recovery time, lower risk of complications and less damage to the surrounding tissue.

Our spine experts perform several different types of interventional spine procedures, including facet joint injections, ablation procedures and spinal cord stimulation. Each patient is different, and we’ll work with you to find the best treatment for you.

When other courses of treatment aren’t improving your quality of life, we may recommend surgery. We provide a comprehensive range of spine surgeries, including laminectomies, microdiscectomies, disc arthroplasties and minimally invasive procedures.

We work closely with spine surgeons at Regions, Methodist, Lakeview and St. Francis Hospitals to provide the highest quality care possible. We also offer several spinal surgery services at our innovative ambulatory surgery center. With the latest techniques and technologies, including intraoperative MRI, you can trust that you’re in good hands.