Some Facts about Spinal Stenosis

There are many people who are diagnosed with spinal stenosis, but they don't know what is it? This blog provides detail information about spinal stenosis and by reading this all your doubts regarding spinal stenosis will be cleared.

Spinal stenosis is a medical condition in which the spinal canal becomes narrow and put additional pressure on the spinal cord and compresses it. Basically, it is divided into two types, lumbar spinal stenosis and cervical spinal stenosis.

• Lumbar spinal stenosis- Here, the narrowing occurs in the lower portion of the spinal canal.

• Cervical spinal stenosis-Narrowing occurs in the upper portion of the spinal canal.

There are some people who are born with this condition, but usually it is seen in people having age more than fifty years. Some of its symptoms involve back pain that radiates to the legs, pain in the buttocks that worsen while walking or doing exercises, loss of balance and pain in the leg or neck.

If you are at the initial stage of spinal stenosis, you may be advised by the doctors to opt for exercises or natural treatments like acupressure or acupuncture, but if the pain is acute, then surgery may be needed to widen the spinal canal or to correct the conditions that contributes to the compression of the nerves. There are some surgical processes that are used for the treatment of spinal stenosis 

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• Laminectomy: This surgery is used to treat lumbar spinal stenosis and involves the removal of the vertebra to create more spaces for the nerves.

• Laminotomy: It involves the partial removal of the lamina which is usually done to widen the spinal canal and relieve compression on the roots of the nerves.

• Spinal Fusion: It involves joining the bones together with screws to provide spinal stability. Here, the bone is removed from any part of the body or is obtained from a bone bank and is used to create a bridge between vertebrae and stimulates the growth of the new bone.