Types of Surgery for Spinal Stenosis

Many of you might have heard the term spinal stenosis. But do you know exactly what is this? Let us discuss about spinal stenosis and its surgery.

Spinal stenosis is a condition in which there is a narrowing of one or more regions of the spine. It can cause severe pain in the back, neck, legs and even shoulders. Sometimes it becomes more severe, and causes unsteadiness or urinary and stool incontinence, which is known as cauda equina syndrome.

Thus, there are two types of surgery for curing spinal stenosis.

Spinal Fusion

It is a form of surgery where two of the vertebrae are fused together with the tissues of the bones that are obtained from the hip of the patient or the pelvic bone. These fragments of bones are positioned between the vertebrae to reduce the pressure on the nerves. Here, the surgeon makes the use of screws, rods or metal plates to hold the bone in place which helps in preventing the bone graft from moving out of position before the new bone growth fuses the graft to existing bone in the spine.

Laminectomy

It is considered to be the most common surgery that is performed to correct the spinal stenosis that occurs in the lumbar spine. The main aim of this type of surgery is to create more rooms for the roots of the nerves that have been encroached upon by the facet joints of the vertebrae.

Here, in this surgery, a small incision is made in the lower back of the patient. The surgeon then removes the lamina and makes an incision in the ligamentum flavum so that the compressed nerve can be seen. Then the compressing materials are removed and once they are removed, the remaining ligaments and muscles are sutured to promote a fast cure after the surgery.

Now you might have got some idea about the surgery of spinal stenosis, but still if you have any doubt, you can make a thorough research on the internet.