There’s nothing quite like lower back pain to put significant limitations on your ability to move around freely. Unfortunately, the problem is widespread — 25% of adults in the United States report lower back pain in the last three months. While there are many issues that can lead to discomfort in your lower back, lumbar spinal stenosis is one of the more common.
At Mountain View Headaches & Spine Institute, Dr. Ruchir Gupta specializes in painful spine conditions and helps his patients find much-needed relief. If lumbar spinal stenosis is behind your low back pain, the good news is that there are solutions, and we explore them here.
Lumbar spinal stenosis at a glance
The word “stenosis” means narrowing, and in the case of lumbar spinal stenosis, it’s referring to the portion of your spinal cord located in your lumbar spine or lower back.
The primary driver of stenosis in your low back is osteoarthritis, which causes changes in your lumbar spine that narrow your spinal cord, placing pressure on the sensitive nerve roots in the area. Since osteoarthritis is a degenerative form of arthritis, lumbar spinal stenosis tends to develop in people over 50.
Outside of arthritis, stenosis can develop due to an injury, a tumor, or certain bone diseases.
The symptoms of lumbar spinal stenosis depend upon the degree of the nerve impingement but can include:
- Pain, especially with certain movements
- Pain that travels down one side of your buttocks and legs
- Numbness and tingling that can travel down your leg
- Weakness in your lower extremity
- Loss of bladder, bowel, or sexual function
Stenosis can cause symptoms that radiate down one of your legs because the narrowing compresses your sciatic nerve, which runs the length of each of your legs.
Treating lumbar spinal stenosis
Most cases of lumbar spinal stenosis are progressive, which means the sooner you seek our help, the better we can slow the disease and remedy your symptoms.
To relieve your pain, we may recommend one or more effective pain management practices, including:
Anti-inflammatory medications
If your pain isn’t severe, we try to start conservatively with over-the-counter pain relievers, including non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications.
Epidural steroid injections
For more moderate pain, we deliver pain-relieving medication directly into the epidural space of your spine to mute the pain signaling.
Radiofrequency ablation
This is a minimally invasive procedure in which we ablate (burn) the end of the nerve that’s responsible for sending pain signals to your brain. Radiofrequency ablation can provide you with meaningful pain relief for up to a year.
Infusion therapy
If your pain doesn’t respond to other treatments, we may recommend ketamine or lidocaine infusion therapy, which delivers powerful pain-relieving agents directly into your bloodstream.
While the above therapies are designed to help you manage lumbar spinal stenosis pain, what you do with this period of pain relief is equally as important. While you have a reprieve from your symptoms, engaging in physical therapy is one of the best ways to garner meaningful results as you’re able to beef up the support systems surrounding your lumbar spine, taking the pressure off of your nerves.
We also offer platelet-rich plasma therapy, which taps your body’s powerful regenerative resources to encourage healing and repair on a cellular level.
As you can see, if you’re struggling with lumbar spinal stenosis, we offer ample options that can help restore pain-free movement. To figure out which treatment protocol is best for you, contact our office in Phoenix, Arizona, to set up an appointment. We also offer telehealth appointments to discuss your treatment options.