At Long Island Spine Rehabilitation Medicine, your unique non-surgical spine care experience is both comprehensive and evidence based. At your initial visit, your physiatrist will obtain a comprehensive history and perform a detailed neurological and musculoskeletal examination. If necessary to proceed with greater diagnostic certainty, we will order the appropriate imaging studies. All images, those ordered by our practice and images brought to initial evaluations, are reviewed in detail with our patients. We feel it is most important for the patient to visualize their imaging findings firsthand and appreciate which may be clinically relevant.
Physical therapy and rehabilitation, when indicated, will be prescribed in a diagnosis specific fashion. Patients are usually referred to a team of skilled therapists, certified in particular areas of expertise, throughout the region with whom we have worked for many years. Medications are often utilized in the setting of acute pain syndromes, and the physiatrists at LISRM are skilled in the judicious use of such agents in a fashion appropriate for each patient’s presenting complaint and medical condition.
In those select cases where electrodiagnostic studies (EMG / nerve conduction studies) are indicated, these examinations will also be performed by your treating physician. The physiatrists of LISRM are board certified in electrodiagnostic medicine, board eligible in neuromuscular medicine, and serve as instructors in electrodiagnostic medicine for both PM&R and neurology residents.
We offer a full spectrum of fluoroscopically guided spinal injection procedures in an office setting utilizing state of the art imaging. If your care involves injection procedures, you will be introduced to and will work closely with our nurse and radiology technician. We are most fortunate to have an outstanding and highly skilled clinical team which has worked together for many years. We have an excellent safety record, and we have created an environment which patients find most comfortable. Our procedural experience does not require the use of general sedation or hospital admission.
It is our clear experience that by offering all of these services for patients with acute spinal presentations, patient care and pain relief are expedited, expenses are minimized, and ultimately, more satisfactory long term outcomes are realized. As spine care experts, while our treatments offered are non-surgical, it is also our responsibility to guide appropriate candidates toward surgical consultation. In some cases, the need for such consultation is acute and in many others only after exhausting non-surgical therapies. We work closely with highly skilled regional surgeons. We serve as advocates for our patients throughout the surgical phase of care, communicate frequently and directly with your treating surgeon, and guide our patients through postoperative rehabilitation. For some patients, more chronic pain conditions are not appropriate for surgical intervention, and in these instances, your physiatrist will help guide you toward alternative therapies or less interventional and more chronic pain management specialists.
Spine Medicine is ever evolving as is our understanding of the spine. As clinicians and patients we are often asked to assess the efficacy of both longstanding and more newly introduced treatments and procedures. The physicians of LISRM are academically active, participants in resident education, fellowship trained, and uniquely boarded in physical medicine and rehabilitation, pain medicine, and electrodiagnostic medicine. Our goal at LISRM is to share with you, the patient, what we know, so that you can become an educated consumer of spine care and the quarterback of your own care.
Patients often comment that the care received at Long Island Spine Rehabilitation Medicine is unlike any previous healthcare experience. We certainly hope you will feel the same. Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to participate in your care.
