About the Southeastern Spine Institute

Welcome to The Southeastern Spine Institute, the largest medical practice in South Carolina specializing in spine only care.

Our medical campus occupies over 41,000 sq. feet on 3 acres of land just off Chuck Dawley Boulevard, in Mount Pleasant, S.C. Here we have state-of-the-art spine MRIs, digital X-ray and most forms of diagnostic equipment to help determine your exact problem. Our medical facility has multiple non-surgical treatment rooms and block suites. We also have an in-house Pharmacy and Physical Therapy Center exclusively to spinal related problems.

If you do need surgery, and less than 10% of our patients do, we have our own in-house surgery center (ASC) where you can have a minimally invasive procedure done in less than an hour and go home the same day. No need to stay overnight in a hospital.

The opening of SSI’s comprehensive center is a result of Dr. Don Johnson’s vision after more than 20 years of work to bring under one roof, and now two roofs, all of the necessary tools and procedures, including MRI, EMG, digital X-Ray, Fluoroscopy, spine blocks, nerve conduction studies, physical therapy and minimally invasive outpatient surgery.

Surgeons, Dr. Donald R. Johnson, Dr. Steven C. Poletti, Dr. Timothy P. Bryan, Dr. Richard F. Frisch and Dr. Thomas S. Anderson use the latest technology including Minimal Access Spinal Technologies (MAST), to relieve spinal pain, allowing patients to be on their way home in two to three hours with no hospital stay required.

Accredited by the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care, SSI is a Food and Drug Administration test site for new devices and latest procedures done in spinal surgery.
SSI also assists in the training of medical and nursing students from the Medical University of South Carolina, where Johnson currently serves on the university’s Board of Trustees and is its former chairman.

Our unique medical facility, is known not only for its size but also its subspecialties; spine surgeons, physical management and rehabilitation physicians, physical therapists and pain management doctors, all who provide total care to patients suffering from back pain… treating the whole person – body and mind – thus promoting a successful and lasting outcome.

We were the first facility in the South to perform the artificial disc replacement, as well as the first to do an out-patient X-Lif procedure; performing an operation through the side of the patient to avoid cutting the muscles in the back, reducing healing time and complications – allowing people to get back to their normal lives as quickly as possible.