What is Spinal Stenosis? A List of Causes, Symptoms, and Treatments

What is Spinal Stenosis?

Spinal stenosis is a condition occurring when the spinal cord or nerves are compressed. This happens because spinal canal, the space where the spinal cord is, becomes narrower. When spinal stenosis occurs in the lower back. it is called lumbar stenosis. Another type of stenosis occurs in the neck, and this is called cervical stenosis.

Spinal stenosis can cause back pain, numbness and tingling in the legs. Sometimes the pain is worse when standing and lessens upon sitting. Other symptoms may include a heavy feeling in the legs, difficulty walking as well as a need to stoop forward when walking. In the case of cervical stenosis, neck pain, pain in the arms weakness of the hands, stiffness and weakness of the legs and difficulty with fine motor skills.

Causes of Spinal Stenosis

Stenosis can be an effect of aging. As people get older, they may develop thickening of the ligaments between the vertebrae; these can compress the spinal cord or nerves. Bone spurs can also develop due to age, and the joints between the bones in the spine can begin to wear out. Large disc herniations often cause stenosis as well. All of these factors can cause a narrowing of the canal inside the vertebrae and can contribute to symptoms of stenosis.

Other causes include:

Arthritis: Osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis can both cause nerve compression.

Congenital Problems: Sometimes people are born with the tendency to develop stenosis or are born with a narrow spinal canal.

Tumors: Benign or malignant tumors can press on the spinal cord or spinal nerves.

Injury: An injury can cause instability in the spine or fractures that might, in turn, cause spinal stenosis.

Many people diagnosed with spinal stenosis report having pain and leg numbness or weakness with no previous injury or history of back problems. This can make it difficult to determine the cause of the problem without running diagnostic tests.

Diagnosing and Treating Spinal Stenosis

Because many times the symptoms of spinal stenosis will improve with some self-care measures, some home treatments might be recommended before diagnostic tests are performed, particularly if the possibility of a tumor has been ruled out. Some of the self-care treatments that may help include:

Rest. If the pain started after an injury, resting the back and then gradually building up your regular activity level might be enough to keep symptoms at bay.

Good Posture and Positioning. Some patients might work with an physical therapist to improve their postures. This can help decrease the compression on the spine. Different sleep positions might be recommended, as well. Strengthening of back muscles is often helpful. One potentially effective sleep position is to lay on your side while drawing your knees up toward your chest.

Medications. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory meedications as well as steroid-based medications might be tried to see if they reduce the swelling and inflammation that is causing your stenosis.

If these measures aren’t helpful, then one or more diagnostic imaging tests like an MRI, a CT scan or a myelogram may be performed. These can show your spinal surgeon exactly where the problem is occurring.

Epidural cortisone injections may be very helpful. In cases when no other treatment is effective, spinal surgery may be warranted to relieve the pressure on your spinal cord and nerves. Minimally invasive neck surgery or a minimally invasive spinal surgery procedure might be feasible in your case.

SPINAL STENOSIS

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