That is  a superb question! Spine surgeons are not certain about the best route for spinal stenosis, yet conservative care is receiving more and more attention in the medical research! Vancouver Disc Centers provides non-surgical care that eases discomfort for Vancouver spinal stenosis sufferers. Vancouver patients who have spinal stenosis know come to Vancouver Disc Centers will find our care gentle and comfortable and commend the research and protocols backing its administration.

 

What is spinal stenosis first of all? Spinal stenosis is the result of narrowing in the spinal canal area. Lumbar spinal stenosis occurs with age for a good deal of us when deterioration of the spine develops. This may have to do with how the spinal elements originally developed at birth. (In some cases people are born with narrow spinal canals.) Likewise spinal stenosis can be the effect of a disc herniation that is injecting itself into the spinal canal, taking up the space that is supposed to be for the spinal nerves. No matter the cause, spinal stenosis’ narrowing causes pain.

 

Often when a surgeon observes that a patient has spinal stenosis they will provide surgical options to open that narrowed space. There are many approaches from which one may choose. Decompressive surgery is one such option.. 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 choice. 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)

 

Vancouver Disc Centers's chiropractor sees spinal stenosis and will provide chiropractic care and spinal manipulation to conservatively relieve the pain of spinal stenosis. Vancouver Disc Centers is the locale 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, schedule an appointment with Vancouver Disc Centers, the Vancouver chiropractic practice for gentle relief of back pain. Vancouver Disc Centers chiropractic care at Vancouver may definitely be the answer to the question of “how to alleviate my pain from spinal stenosis?” for you!