What To Do With Lumbar Spinal Stenosis?

Excellent question! Spine surgeons are not certain the best treatment plan for spinal stenosis, after all conservative care is obtaining a higher regard in the medical research! Vancouver Disc Centers delivers non-surgical care that is quite relieving to Vancouver spinal stenosis sufferers. Chiropractic patients in Vancouver who havespinal stenosis know come to Vancouver Disc Centers will find our care gentle and comfortable and appreciate the research and protocols behind its administration.

 

What is spinal stenosis first of all? Spinal stenosis is the narrowing of the spinal canal area. In particular lumbar spinal stenosis occurs with age for many of us when deterioration of the spine emerges. This may have to do with how the spinal elements at first developed at birth. (Some people are born with narrow spinal canals.) It may be due to a disc herniation that is pushing itself into the spinal canal, taking up the space that is designed for the spinal nerves. Regardless of the cause, spinal stenosis’ narrowing is painful.

 

Surgeons observe spinal stenosis and provide surgical options to open that narrowed space. There are many approaches from which one may choose. One procedure is decompressive surgery. It is cost-effective for lumbar spinal stenosis, but surgical and conservative treatment approaches result in comparable quality of life at one year follow up. (1) Spinal fusion is another such option. A Cochrane Database Review, a big deal in the world of research, reports that there is no significant difference at 6 months and 12 months post spine surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis. Cochrane pulled from 12,966 citations to conclude further that they have very little confidence to determine whether surgical or conservative care is better for lumbar spinal stenosis. They, therefore, offer no new clinical practice recommendations for doctors to follow. They do emphasize though that side-effects from surgery range from 10% to 24% and side effects from conservative care, 0%. There were no side effects from conservative care for lumbar spine stenosis in their review. Further, they report that there were no clear benefits seen with surgery versus no surgery. They warn clinicians to carefully inform patients about possible treatment options “especially given that conservative treatment options have results in no reported side effects.” (2)

 

When your chiropractor at Vancouver Disc Centers recognizes spinal stenosis they will give chiropractic care and spinal manipulation to conservatively relieve the pain of spinal stenosis. Vancouver Disc Centers is the place for Vancouver conservative care of back pain. Vancouver Disc Centers uses the Cox Technic system of spinal manipulation to open the spinal canal area by 28%, allowing the nerves to breathe, and drop intradiscal pressures to as low as -192mmHg. (3,4)

 

When lumbar spinal stenosis is causing you pain, contact Vancouver Disc Centers, the Vancouver chiropractic practice for gentle relief of back pain. Vancouver Disc Centers chiropractic care at Vancouver is the answer to the question of “how can I manage my pain from spinal stenosis?” for you!