Treatment of Lumbar Spinal Stenosis

It’s common for office and remote workers to suffer from back pain, and some of them even consider it an inevitable part of their lives. Most people think those problems are just bad posture issues and try to solve them with homemade methods such as using ergonomic chairs or applying ice, but what if the problem is more serious than having a bad posture?

If that was the case, you’d be letting your back problems get worse each day and allowing many other back conditions and illnesses to appear. One of those conditions is lumbar spinal stenosis, which narrows the space within your spinal cord, impeding it and the adjacent nerves to work as they should.  

You must take care of this issue as soon as you notice it, so we are here to provide you with all the information you need to know about the symptoms and available treatments of this condition. Your priority must be your safety, so make sure to learn as much as you can about lumbar spinal stenosis and walking problems!

What Causes Lumbar Spinal Stenosis? 

As we mentioned before, when you talk about lumbar spinal stenosis, you are talking about the compression or narrowing of the space within your spinal cord. However, you must be careful regarding this matter since many things can cause that condition to happen.

To understand the problem and thus how to treat it, you need to understand what produces it, so here is a list of the most common causes of lumbar spinal stenosis:

Spinal Injuries

It’s easy to notice lumbar spinal stenosis if it’s originated from spinal injuries since those problems don’t come from any indirect issue or congenital condition. Direct accidents such as car crashes or any heavy hit you receive that can dislocate your bones, break them, or cause extreme inflammation can damage your spinal canal, putting a lot of pressure on your spinal nerves. 

Thickened Ligaments

Your ligaments are an essential part of your body since they hold your bones together, including, logically, your spinal cord. However, issues such as arthritis can cause your ligaments to thicken and consequently bulge into space within your spinal canal. This issue doesn’t only produce lumbar spinal stenosis but also major walking problems if not treated on time. 

Bone Overgrowth 

If you are having a case of bone spurs and overgrowth of the bones within your spinal cord, you are prone to develop lumbar spinal stenosis. The name of this issue is osteoarthritis, also known as the wear and tear condition, which breaks down the protective covering of your joints and makes your bones rubbing against each other and creating bone spurs. 

Tumors 

Tumors, whether if cancerous or benign, can form within the space in your spinal cord. The abnormal growth of the tumors can limit the space for your nerves and spinal cord, causing this spinal stenosis to happen. You should make a doctor’s appointment as soon as you feel any unusual sensation or pain in the back since it’s not easy to detect those tumors without realizing the corresponding tests. 

What Are the Symptoms of Lumbar Spinal Stenosis? 

The best way to prevent major issues that can be detrimental to your health is to detect their symptoms on time and treat them properly. However, it’s not that easy to recognize which illness or condition the symptoms correspond to since many diseases share the same symptoms, so you have to notice more than one.

Lumbar spinal stenosis is a dangerous matter that you have to identify as soon as you can, so here is a list of the primary symptoms to help you check if you have any of them:

  • Lower back pain.
  • Neck pain.
  • Numbness in your legs. 
  • Pain in your legs after standing for long periods. 
  • Feet weakness. 
  • Bladder or bowels inconsistencies. 
  • Pain in your buttocks and legs is known as sciatica. 
  • Leg cramping. 
  • Burning sensation in your lower back

There are two more types of spinal stenosis: cervical and thoracic spinal stenosis. Both of them have different symptoms that help you notice them. Since all three diseases are directly related and can affect one another, here are the symptoms of thoracic and cervical spinal stenosis:

Thoracic Spinal Stenosis

  • Tingling, weakness, numbing, or pain in your stomach 
  • Balance problems. 

Cervical Spinal Stenosis

  • Tingling, numbness, or weakness in your legs, arms, or hands. 
  • Neck Pain.
  • Bladder or bowel dysfunction. 
  • Balance problems. 

What Is the Best Treatment for Spinal Stenosis?

When suffering from this condition, you can ask yourself: what’s the best treatment for spinal stenosis? Or what’s the latest treatment to solve it? Our primary condition is your safety, so you can read this article as an objective information page to help you ease your pain and eliminate your back problems.

The most effective solution to spinal stenosis is spinal surgery since it can address all the issues occurring within the space of your spinal cord and even related problems that you didn’t consider when asking for surgery. Look at the best and latest treatments for spinal stenosis:

Medications: Such as opioids, anti-depressants to reduce chronic pain, and pain relievers can help you to ease the pain and sensations caused by this condition. 

Physical Therapy: Since it helps you stay active. Commonly, spinal stenosis patients tend to be less active and weak to the pain and lack of mobility, but if you ask your doctor to help you arrange physical therapy, you can maintain and improve your flexibility, endurance, and balance. 

Applying heat/Cold: This is one of the most common alternatives for people who want to try self-help remedies. Applying heat to the areas where you feel the most pain relaxes your muscles and helps your broken joints while improving your blood flow. If the heat doesn’t work, try ice, which significantly alleviates inflammations, tenderness, and swelling. 

Decompression Procedure:  This procedure is only available for patients who have lumbar spinal stenosis caused by thickened ligaments. Doctors don’t need to apply anesthesia nor stitches to complete this procedure, since it consists of making a little incision to remove the thickened parts of the ligaments to make more space for the spinal cord, decompressing nerve roots. 

Steroids Injections: It’s not recommended that you apply this method very often, since you can only use it to ease inflammation and pain for a limited time. The treatment consists of injecting corticosteroids in the area where the nerve roots are to reduce inflammation and pain, but that’s its only effect and it cannot eliminate spinal stenosis by itself. 

Surgery: Patients ask for surgery when they can’t stand the pain anymore, and the disease is becoming a setback to realize daily activities. This method is delicate and has to be done very carefully, but it’s highly effective to free yourself from spinal stenosis. There are many surgeries regarding this matter, so here is the primary one:

  • Cervical Laminoplasty: This process is for patients suffering from cervical spinal stenosis, and it’s to remove the pressure on the neck part of your spinal cord. To do that, surgeons make an incision in the back of your neck and liberate space from the spinal canal by creating a hinge on the lamina.
  • Laminotomy: Laminotomy is performed in other parts of your spinal cord, differing from cervical laminoplasty. This surgery is simple in theory since the surgeons just have to make an incision that is of the size needed to relieve enough pressure from the spinal cord.

Conclusion

Your spinal cord is an essential part of your body and you have to take special care of it since if damaged, it can be the reason why you suffer from highly dangerous conditions and illnesses in the future. If you feel or notice any of the symptoms you read in this article, get a doctor’s appointment as soon as possible to make sure the problem doesn’t progress, and you can treat it on time.