Symptoms: Spinal Stenosis
Lumbar spinal stenosis have symptoms:
- weakness, numbness, pain, and loss of sensation in the legs.
- low back pain,
In most cases the symptoms of spinal stenosis improve when the patient is sitting or leaning forward. Typically, painful sensations shoot down the legs with continued walking, and diminish with resting. Standing and bending backwards can make the symptoms worse. This is because bending forward increases the space in the spinal canal and vertebral foramen, while bending backward decrease the space. It more comfortable for patients to sit or lean forward and are unable to walk for long distances. Patients often state their symptoms are improved when bending forward while walking with the support of a walker or shopping cart.
In most cases the symptoms of spinal stenosis gradually worsen with time. This is because degenerative arthritis is a progressive disease that gradually becomes more severe with time. If left untreated the compression on the nerves from lumbar spinal stenosis can lead to increasing weakness and loss of function of the legs. It can also lead
to loss of bowel and bladder control and loss of sexual function.
What is spinal stenosis?
Spinal stenosis of the spine is a medical condition in which the spinal canal narrows and compresses the spinal cord and nerves. This is usually due to the common occurrence of spinal degeneration that occurs with aging. It can also sometimes be caused by spinal disc herniation
osteoporosis or a tumor. In the lumbar (low back) and cervical (neck)region it can be a congenital condition to varying degrees.Spinal stenosis may affect the cervical, thoracic or lumbar spine. In some cases, it may be present in all three places in the same patient. Lumbar spinal stenosis results in low back pain as well as pain or abnormal sensations in the legs, thighs, feet or buttocks, or loss of bladder and bowel control.
Causes of lumbar spinal stenosis
The most common cause of lumbar spinal stenosis is degenerative arthritis. As with other joints in the body arthritis commonly occurs in the spine as part of the normal ageing process. This can lead to loss of the cartilage between the bones at the joints, loss of the normal height of the discs between the vertebrae of the spine (degenerative disc disease) and overgrowth (hypertrophy) of the ligamentous structures. Each of these processes reduces the normal space available for the nerves and can directly press on nerve tissues to cause lumbar spinal stenosis.
Lumbar spinal stenosis can also be caused by other conditions that decrease the space of the spinal canal or vertebral foramen. These can include:
- various metabolic bone disorders, such as Paget’s disease of bone.
- Tumor and
- infection
These causes are much less common than degenerative arthritis.
Tags: Back Pain, compression, low back pain, lumbar spinal stenosis, nerve, spinal cord, Spinal Stenosis, Spinal Stenosis, symptoms, symptoms spinal stenosis
