Relief for Acute Back Pain
Many of us have experienced back pain before. But, when it becomes frequent or acute — affecting your ability to pursue a career, participate in leisure activities, and enjoy a high quality of life — it may be time to seek help from UPMC Centers for Rehab Services (CRS).
Manual Physical Therapy for Back Pain
Manual physical therapy is a highly specialized treatment for acute low back pain. Evidence has shown that manual physical therapy techniques are the optimal interventions for people with acute low back pain.
What is manual physical therapy?
Manual physical therapy requires our therapists to have a detailed understanding of functional human anatomy and precise techniques.
Following a detailed evaluation of your symptoms and motion analysis:
- The therapist will target a specific region of the spine or pelvis with a series of graded, physical movements.
- This is then followed by focused exercises to strengthen the back and upper body, improving overall stability.
- You will then receive a detailed home exercise program as an adjunct to your clinic visit.
When performed properly, these techniques allow you to return to full physical function, often in as little as one visit. In many cases, you will feel complete symptom relief within hours of these interventions.
Many of these therapy techniques, used worldwide, have been developed and refined by our very own clinical experts who serve not only as CRS therapists, but as faculty at the University of Pittsburgh.
This unique relationship between clinical practice and academic foundation facilitates a teaching and learning environment for our manual therapy experts.
The "Low Back Initiative" at CRS
A key program at CRS is known as the "Low Back Initiative." Our orthopaedic surgeons and physical therapists are helping to set the standard of care for the medical community.
While we understand the significant clinical impact of acute low back pain, we strongly believe that we can always improve the way we evaluate and treat our patients.
Specifically, this initiative enables our clinicians to track your progress — from evaluation to discharge — with a series of scientifically reliable outcome measures. These measures can then be analyzed to the true effectiveness of treatment.
This initiative allows our clinicians to become stronger and more effective in their manual therapy interventions while, most importantly, improving the outcomes of our patients.
To make an appointment, or for more information about relief for acute low back pain, call us at 1-888-723-4CRS (4277).