Lumbar Spinal Stenosis Treatment
If you are suffering from the spinal stenoisis of the lower back, if you want to know further information about Spinal Stenosis of the neck, please pay your attention to the following topic.
Lumbar Spinal stenosis: the narrowing of the spinal canal, through which the spinal cord and spinal nerves run. It is often caused by the overgrowth of bone caused by osteoarthritis of the spine, then shrink the openings of the spinal bones. This narrowing not only compresses and irritates the spinal cord itself but also compresses the nearby nerves which split out from the spinal cord. The compression of the nerves caused by spinal stenosis can lead not only to pain; more seriously, it will cause the numbness or feebleness in legs.
Lumbar Spinal Stenosis Causes
As aging processing, the shape and size of our spinal canal also change along with it. This change usually will result in lumber spinal stenosis. For example, the connective tissues will grow thicker, the joint disease would give rise to the growth of the bones which will block the spinal cord, and the discs might be back flow into the spinal canal. Taking into account of these conditions, the space in the spinal canal must be narrowed.
Lumbar Spinal Stenosis Symptoms
When the spinal cord gets compressed, symptoms are displayed. In serious cases, patients will loss the control of bladder and bowel. In less serious cases, sufferers may have difficulty in walking, leaning backward or standing straight because of numbness, feebleness, or stiffness in the leg and thighs. Sometimes, these symptoms will get better when you sit down or lean forward. However, it is lucky enough for some people to have no feelings at all.
Lumbar Spinal Diagnosis
Usually, when you go to see doctor, first, he will ask you some questions about your symptoms and previous health conditions, and then they will advise you to have a physical exam. You’d better to do some imaging tests, such as MRI, A CT scan, which will contribute to a more directly visible effect.
Lumbar Spinal Stenosis Treatment
Initial treatment
Mostly, you don’t have to undergo a spinal stenosis surgery unless your lumbar spinal is serious. However, you should consider using some other treatments as options for the purpose of relieving your pain. Nonsurgical treatment will enable you to keep the most common activities and alleviate your symptoms of pain, numbness, and weakness in the legs. Nonsurgical treatment includes:
Knowing about the course of your condition and how to alleviate symptoms.
Taking medicines which can release you from pain and inflammation, such as acetaminophen and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).
Taking exercise, regular exercise can keep us in good shape. Aerobic exercise-especially riding a stationary bicycle (which allows you to lean forward)-can provide a relief for us.
Losing weight, proper body weight will help us to alleviate symptoms and slow the process of the stenosis.
Using physical therapy, it can offer you education, instruction, and support for your self-care. Through physical therapy, you will learn stretching and strength exercises that are capable of easing your pain and other symptoms.
If you are in possession of symptoms of cervical spinal stenosis, you’d better have a testing and treatment as early as possible. Or you will delay the best time for treatment.
Ongoing treatment
As a matter of fact, nonsurgical treatment is recommended to be used in treating lumbar spinal stenosis. Treatment may include:
Taking medicines for the purpose of relieving pain and inflammation, such as acetaminophen and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).
Taking exercise, regular exercise can keep us in good shape. Aerobic exercise-especially riding a stationary bicycle (which allows you to lean forward)-can provide relief of symptoms.
Keeping a proper body weight, which of great help for us to alleviate symptoms and slow the process of the stenosis.
Using physical therapy. It can offer you education, instruction, and support for your self-care. Through physical therapy, you will learn stretching and strength exercises that are capable of easing your pain and other symptoms.
If medicines, exercise, and physical therapy do not make a difference to your symptoms, you may be suggested by your health professional to have an epidural steroid injection (ESI). This injection contains a corticosteroid and a local anesthetic pain reliever. These injections are usually used for treating the pain occurring in the legs.
Treatment if the lumbar spinal stenosis condition gets worse.
The condition of lumbar spinal stenosis varies from time to time: sometime symptoms may be acute and sometimes not acute. Numbness, weakness you feel or inability to stand or walk may indicate that your condition deteriorates. Loss of bladder and bowel control also means the worsening of your spinal stenosis.
If you are suffering acute low back pain which cannot be alleviated by other forms of treatment and you have trouble doing normal activities, your health professional may give you a prescription for hydrocodone or other opioid medicines. But these medicines are ineffective for symptoms that appear in the legs. In addition opioids such as mental confusion, drowsiness, and constipation will have great side effects, which are more unbearable than the pain of lumbar spinal stenosis itself.
If nonsurgical treatment recommended by your health professional proves to be ineffective for you for some time, you may take surgery as an alternative treatment. In order to identify the amount and location of spinal canal narrowing, you’d better to have an Imaging tests (such as MRI). You need to have a discussion with your health professional about the severity of symptoms and imaging test results, and then you can make a decision about whether to undergo a surgery or not.
Back surgery (decompressive laminectomy with or without spinal fusion) may be recommended when you:
Are suffering severe symptoms of pain, numbness, or weakness in the legs that set a limit to your normal daily activities and greatly spoil the quality of your life.
Have good healthy condition but do not have other alternatives that will enable you to restore your health soon.
Surgery is aiming at alleviating pain, numbness, or weakness in the legs rather than back pain. People who undergo a spinal stenosis surgery for the purpose of alleviating nerve root symptoms and pain in both the back and legs are more content with results than are those who undergo a surgery solely for lessening back pain. Mostly, surgery can not provide relief from back pain related to spinal stenosis. What’s more, the symptoms such as numbness, weakness, and pain may appear again after the surgery.
As far as we know, the sole purpose of applying Epidural steroid injections (ESIs) is to treat symptoms of lumbar spinal stenosis in the legs. This treatment provides a short-term effect on symptoms only. According to experts, there is no evidence to prove that it is effective in a long term. When your doctor advise you to take injections, make sure that he knows about the fact that you are running a risk when overusing injections.
Usually, it is inadvisable that older grow-ups have a surgery when they are capable of doing normal daily activities and are capable of improving their condition with nonsurgical treatment. However, if the symptoms are too serious and greatly ruin their life, they may consider having a surgery even though risks may occur in it. For the older adults who have other serious disease, surgery may not be an ideal choice because the other disease will put them at greater risk.