Maven Sports Medicine effectively combines our high standard of orthopedic rehabilitation practice with our clear understanding of elite fitness and sports performance. Maven’s Doctors of Physical Therapy have decades of combined practice experience in orthopedic rehabilitation, sports strength/conditioning, fitness, and athletic training. Our dedication to providing excellent evidence-based care to all our active and athletic patients remains consistent.

Diagnosis:

Herniated discs can be diagnosed clinically (that is, by an evaluation from a medical professional) and confirmed by diagnostic tests (MRI). Your history and complaints are very important indicators of whether or not you may have a herniated disc.

A patient may say one of the following during the evaluation:

• "I started having a pins and needles sensation on the bottom of my foot while driving for after an hour or two."
• "I sneezed (coughed) really hard and felt a pain go down the back of my leg (or down the arm for a disc herniation of the cervical spine)."
• "I bent over to pick up a small box and felt a shooting pain from my butt to my calf."
  
  
  After your history is taken, your spinal active range of motion will be measured. You will be asked to bend forward, backward, sideward, and to rotate to see if any of these motions reproduce your symptoms. Usually, bending forward reproduces disc symptoms. Other tests will be performed to confirm the diagnosis.

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The following patient populations should especially avoid spinal manipulation:

• patients with a herniated cervical (neck) disc, who have had a previous stroke.
• patients with lumbar disc herniation with symptoms that travel down the thigh past the knee.