What is spinal stenosis?
Your spinal canal runs through your vertebrae and protects your spinal cord. With age, the discs between vertebrae dry out, flatten and can bulge into the canal, while arthritis thickens ligaments and facet joints. The result is less room for your nerves — and more chance they get squeezed.
Symptoms
Stenosis doesn’t always cause symptoms. When it does, expect back or leg pain and numbness, and sometimes leg cramps and weakness. Symptoms are usually worse after standing or walking for a while and often ease when you sit or lean forward — which opens more room for the nerves. They can vary from day to day.
How we treat spinal stenosis
Most patients start with conservative care — anti-inflammatory medication, physical therapy, gentle exercise and activity changes. If that isn’t enough, the next steps can include:
- Epidural steroid injections
- Minimally invasive lumbar decompression (MILD®)
- Vertiflex™ Superion® interspinous spacer
Superion is placed through a tiny incision in the lower back. It limits the backward bending that pinches the nerves while still letting you bend forward, and the procedure takes about 20 minutes.