What is stenosis of the spine? Stenosis of the spine is a very painful condition caused by the narrowing of the spinal cord. This causes such severe pain leading to decreased quality of life with the resulting increased medical costs. A common cause of persistent lower back pain, spinal stenosis can cause agonizing pain and the lack of physical activity leads to muscle weakness with the resultant wasting of the muscles. The pressure on the nerves, which is causes by spinal stenosis, affects other areas of the body, with sufferers experiencing numbness in their legs and pains in the legs. A tingling causing discomfort is experienced in the shoulders, arms and hands is also a symptom of this. The lumbar area or lower back can be affected if spinal stenosis is severe and the loss of bladder and bowel control can occur due to compression in the nerves controlling these functions.
Pain and cramping of the legs is the hallmark symptom of spinal stenosis. This cramping can only be relieved by sitting or bending. This can be so severe that complete disability could occur from the pain emanating from the hip and lower back then travelling down the leg to the feet, causing numbness and weakness, losing all feeling in the foot you can fall down as you cannot feel when your foot it touching the ground. This can also affect the neck or cervical area by causing headaches and weakness in the arms and hands.
Aging can also cause spinal stenosis from bone degeneration known as osteoarthritis and this is sometimes present at birth. Changes that occur through aging affect the vertebrae, making it softer. As the vertebrae soften a disc in the vertebrae can rupture, causing herniation which is a fragment of disc that presses on a nerve or the spinal cord itself, causing spinal stenosis. Vertebrae then become displaced due to changes in the ligaments holding them in place. This puts pressure on the spinal cord causing spondylolisthesis, or spinal stenosis. Growths which are abnormal such as tumors and trauma can also cause spinal stenosis.
So how is this treated? Pain medication and limited activity are normally recommended for mild cases of spinal stenosis. In this case with the guidance of your doctor, exercises that increase mobility with the help of a physical therapist are recommended. A back support might be helpful. For inflamed nerve roots steroid injections can calm and relieve pain. If the condition of spinal stenosis is diagnosed early enough, abdominal strengthening exercises may help to prevent symptoms from worsening due to strain on the back caused by weak abdominal muscles.
For surgery in these case speak to your doctor as there are several surgical approaches which can be taken. The surgeries for spinal stenosis are spinal fusion where the spine is fused to prevent vertebrae from slipping. Laminotomy, which is surgery to relieve pressure on the spinal cord, or decompression laminectomy, is also performed.But before deciding tohave one it is better that you gatherall information and it is better too if you have the following information presented in the study published at JAMA 2010.
To prevent spinal stenosis setting in, one should maintain good posture. Bending at the knees when lifting heavy items and maintaining flexibility by stretching is good advice. Try to remain physically active as this keeps the spine flexible, and strong stomach muscles also help. Sleeping on a firm mattress is recommended too.