Back Pain and MRI-Led Therapy

Back pain affects around 80% of people at some point and costs businesses significant sums through lost work hours. Yet many patients struggle to know where to start: GP, physiotherapist, osteopath, chiropractor, or surgeon.

The Problem with Generic Treatment

Treatment efficacy for back pain varies significantly from person to person, and much of this comes down to whether the treatment is addressing the actual cause. Without knowing what's driving someone's pain at a structural level, treatment is partly educated guesswork.

What MRI Adds

Modern MRI scans reveal internal spinal structures invisible on X-rays or physical examination: disc protrusions, annular tears, Modic changes, facet arthritis, nerve root compression. Surgeons use MRI routinely, though 80 to 90% of patients who see them don't actually need surgery.

Physical therapists assess movement and function through hands-on evaluation, valuable information that surgeons typically don't provide. But most therapists receive minimal training in interpreting MRI images, meaning they miss critical structural information about whether specific treatments will help or harm a particular patient.

The Spine Plus Difference

Spine Plus practitioners are trained to interpret spinal MRI scans and combine imaging analysis with hands-on assessment. This means:

• Treatment is targeted at the specific structural cause, not a general presentation
• Harmful treatments (e.g. manipulation at unstable segments) are avoided
• The most appropriate specialist technologies (IDD Therapy, TECAR, shockwave) are selected based on what the imaging shows
• Surgical referrals are made at the right time, to the right specialist

Checking the scan, not just trusting the report

In our experience, relying on an unknown radiologist's report alone isn't enough. We've lost count of the number of times a significant finding on an MRI scan had not been reported, whether that's a torn disc, swelling around a particular vertebra, a slipped disc, or worse. At Spine Plus we only use trusted radiologists to report on our scans, and we also train our practitioners to know what they're looking for on MRI scans of the spine themselves, something very few manual therapy clinics do effectively.

Beyond the spine

While we're known for spinal problems, patients also see us for other orthopaedic conditions, including shoulder pain and arm, leg and foot problems, using the same pragmatic, imaging-led approach.

Treatment options

Our clinics offer several treatment options, including expert hands-on therapy from our osteopaths and physiotherapists, exercise advice, and trigger point dry needling (sometimes known as medical acupuncture). We're also one of the UK's most experienced and most prolific providers of specialist treatments such as IDD Spinal Decompression Therapy and Shockwave Therapy, available at several of our clinics.

Working with surgeons and specialists

We've made it our job to get to know a number of surgeons and other specialists, so if it does come to surgery or injections, we can recommend who we think is the right consultant for the job.

Therapy products for home use

We also have our own range of therapy products, personally tested and designed by us, so people can treat themselves at home in the most effective way possible.

Call us on 020 8506 1000 to discuss an MRI-led assessment for your back pain.