What is Spinal Stenosis

What is spinal stenosis? Spinal stenosis is basically the narrowing of the spinal canal. Narrowing of the spinal canal can be caused because of various reasons. Some of the reasons for the narrowing of the spinal canal can include:

• Bulging/Pressing Disk
• Ruptured/Herniated Disk
• Arthritus
• Damage to the Disk
• Misalignment of the Spine
• Degenerated Disk

When a damaged disk is pushing inside of the spinal canal, it will cause the section of the spinal canal that the disk is pushing into to become narrow. There can also be narrowing of the spine in different areas of the back due to damaged or bulging disks. When multiple disks are pushing into the spinal cavity, it can cause a narrowing of the spine in each area. Once the disks are pushing far enough into the spinal cavity, they can press against the nerves inside of the spinal cavity. This is called compression of the spinal cavity nerves. Most people develop spinal stenosis from a injury to the disks in the back or from degeneration.

Spinal stenosis is one of the most painful things that any human being can go through. The results from spinal stenosis can often times be deliberating because of the sever pain and because of the "Back Going Out" constantly. The symptoms of spinal stenosis can be very significant and easy to diagnose. Some of the main symptoms of spinal stenosis include:

• Sever Pain in Lower back
• Lower back consistently going out
• Severe pain shooting Down one leg or the other
• Constant back Pain/Irritation
• Tingling in Lower Back and Legs
• Numbness in Back and legs
• Weakness in Back and legs

Most everybody that develops spinal stenosis will generally show the same symptoms or at least most of the symptoms as the spinal stenosis gets worse. If the problem is not fixed, the damage will only get worse and the symptoms will also get worse.

Treatment options for spinal stenosis have remained consistent over the years but over the last few years, there have been some improvements in the way that spinal stenosis is treated. The basic general treatments for spinal stenosis include:

• Narcotic Pain Medication
• Anti-inflammatory medication (Toradol,Ultram)
• Ibuprofen
• Ice Packs
• Heat Packs
• Disk Injections
• Physical Therapy

Generally once the pain medications and physical therapy are no longer working, then surgery will be the main option left. The main surgery that has been used to treat spinal stenosis is "Spinal Fusion Surgery".

Spinal Fusion- This is where the disks are fused together to prevent them from pushing into the spinal cavity. Spinal fusion can work great for some people and not so great for other people. Spinal fusion tends to also be a short time repair because it has a tendency of causing other disks to have problems.

The other form of spinal stenosis treatment is a non-surgery option called "Non-Surgecial Spinal Decompression.

Non-Surgical Spinal Decompression- This newest form of treatment for spinal stenosis is done by compressing the disks back into place without the use of surgery. As of 2011, the non-surgical spinal decompression success rate was almost 90-percent as reported by the Mayo Clinic. This success rate far exceeds the success rates of the surgical fusion option. Even though there may be some people that will not be candidates for the non-surgical procedure, only your doctor can tell you if you are. So if the medications have stopped working and the positive effects of the surgical fusion have worn off, consult your doctor about the non-surgical spinal decompression treatment. When all else fails, most people will have to take medications for the rest of their life until more treatment options are available.