Spinal Stenosis: What is It, Symptoms, and Treatment

spinal stenosis

Quick Facts About Spinal Stenosis Treatment

Spinal stenosis is a decrease in the diameter of the spinal canal. Nerve roots, spinal cord, and blood vessels should be located in the spinal canal freely. In spinal stenosis, the nerve and vascular structures are compressed. This leads to impaired function of the spinal cord with neurological deficit, sensitivity disorders, pain syndrome… etc. Against this background, the spinal cord may suffer from concomitant neurological disorders.

Spinal stenosis treatment

Correction of the bone structures is an intricate task, as it is connected with significant complications risks. Thus, such interventions are carried out only in well-equipped and specialized hospitals – always consult your doctor before beginning any treatment.

Symptoms

Clinical manifestations depend on the form of the disease and its cause. Common symptoms of spinal stenosis include:

  • Fatigue
  • Sensitivity violations
  • Pain syndrome
  • Violations of the blood supply of the spinal cord and nerve roots
  • Walking and balance disorders
  • Weakness in the extremities

However, these symptoms can arise not only in stenosis but also in a number of other pathologies.

Therefore, it is extremely important to seek qualified help and undergo the necessary diagnostics, according to the results of which the doctor will diagnose and prescribe a course of spinal stenosis treatment.

For those looking to go out of the USA for treatment, it can potentially be easier to undergo spinal stenosis treatment in Germany with the unique medical tourism provider Booking Health.

Booking Health will help in choosing treatment programs in the best hospitals in Germany, excluding the unnecessary expenses (such as additional fees for the patients from other countries, which can be up to 50% of the total cost), and will become your guide during the entire treatment period.

Diagnostics

It is almost impossible to diagnose stenosis based simply on pain since pain is a manifestation of many pathological conditions. Therefore, after examining the patient and collecting an anamnesis, the doctor will prescribe additional instrumental studies that will help establish the causes of the disease and elaborate on the correct treatment. Such examinations include MRI and CT of the spine, myelography, and functional radiography.

With degenerative stenosis of the spinal canal, the changes of the spinal canal will be visible on the X-ray.

Quick Facts About Spinal Stenosis Treatment Starting TodayIn general clinical practice, four degrees of disease severity are distinguished:

  • 1 degree – presence of sharp pain in the calf muscles when walking (intermittent claudication)
  • 2 degree – slight violation of walking with minor pain
  • 3 degree – inability to walk around without assistance
  • 4 degree – pronounced manifestations of lameness with severe pain

Since the pathology refers to the rapidly progressing ones, doctors recommend starting treatment as soon as possible. Only this approach will help in slowing down the disease progression and protecting against disability.

Important: when examining a patient by a specialist, a series of tests are performed to determine the extent and level of damage.

Treatment

Today, the most progressive method of surgical treatment is minimally invasive surgery, which involves the implementation of manipulations through small punctures in the body.

Such operations are carried out using special equipment and auxiliary systems, carry fewer risks and contribute to the speedy postoperative recovery of the patient.

For many years, the problem of surgical treatment of this kind of spine pathology has been the subject of close attention of neurosurgeons. There are currently 2 alternative options of spinal stenosis treatment in Germany for cervical and lumbar spinal stenosis: the conservative and surgical ones.

At first, all patients begin treatment with conservative therapy, which consists of observing bed rest, taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, vitamin therapy, physiotherapy, massage, as well as epidural glucocorticoids introduction.

However, the insufficient effect of conservative treatment during 6 months is an indication for surgical intervention.

The goal of any surgery for cervical, thoracic or lumbar stenosis is the decompression of nerve structures in the spinal canal and stabilization of the spinal segment.

In most cases, decompression eliminates radicular manifestations, and stabilization prevents the disease relapse and eliminates back pain.

Both stages of the surgical intervention complement each other and improve the patient’s quality of life.

Wrap-Up

The surgery uses a combination of different techniques which leads to excellent results and improves the health state of thousands of people annually.

Spinal Stenosis: What is It, Symptoms, and Treatment