What is spinal stenosis?
Your spine runs in a bony canal which extends from your upper neck all way down to the sacrum. The spinal cord terminates at the level of second / third lumbar vertebrae and extends a bunch of nerves called Cauda Equine, i.e. horse’s tail. These nerves come out in pairs at each level of lumbar and sacral area and run to the lower limbs.
Spinal stenosis happens when the canal is not capacious enough for the nerves to feel comfortable. Once they become crowded in the canal they become irritated.
Causes os spinal stenosis are various: it can be bulging disc or discs, lax and bulking ligamentum flavum, swollen facet joints and so on.
What are the symptoms of spinal stenosis?
Spinal stenosis affects mainly people in rather advanced age. Interestingly patients often don’t experience back pain. The symptoms affect mainly lower limbs which is understandable as the stenosis affects nerves running to lower limbs. So patients usually complain on “wobbly legs”, weakness in the legs, cramps, sometimes pain. These symptoms force patients to stop and are relieved by leaning forward, supporting on a stick or sitting down. After short rest symptoms go away.
What are the traditional treatments available for spinal stenosis?
Most of the traditional treatments focus on symptoms management, i.e. patient might be offered physiotherapy, steroids shot or in some cases spine fusion. The latter is a big operation and many studies have shown no benefit over physiotherapy in a long run. Steroid shots provide short time pain relief. So patients are left with their symptoms and live on painkillers.
Is regenerative orthopaedic the option?
If you have read my other posts you probably know that what attracts me most in the regenerative medicine is that it is natural, it addresses the cause, when possible and is safe for patient. The same applies to the spinal stenosis regenerative treatments. We can treat facet joints with leucocyte poor PRP, we can inject Platelet Lysate around the nerves, we can make Ligamentum Flavum stronger by injecting PRP. We can help with disc problems as well with special preparation of leucocyte rich PRP. In our clinic we don’t go by “one recipe fits all”. Each structure which we inject we treat with different product in line with extensive research carried out in Regenexx own research laboratory.
So if you or somebody you know suffers from spinal stenosis, please, don’t wait and contact us to book an appointment. We are here to help!