- Lumbar stenosis is the narrowing of passages within the lumbar spine that contain the nerves
- Most often caused by
- Degeneration (often age-related) wuth overgrowth of bone and tissue
- Disc displacement - disc material moves into an abnormal location
- Stenosis can be central stenosis, lateral recess stenosis, and/or foraminal stenosis
- Lumbar stenosis can cause compression of "pinching" of the nerves of the lumbar spine
- This pinching can cause irritation and/or injury to the nerves leading to symptoms
- Symptoms typically are pain, numbness, tingling, and/or weakness of the legs
- Compression of the nerves in the central canal of the lumbar spine can cause neurogenic claudication
- Neurogenic claudication is pain in the legs that occurs with (or is made worse by) walking that is relieved with rest
- Pressure on the nerves in the lateral recess of the lumbar spine or foramen can cause lumbar radiculopathy
- Lumbar radiculopathy typically is pain, numbness, tingling, and/or weakness occurring in a portion of one leg supplied by a lumbar nerve root
- For example: an L5 radiculopathy might cause pain, numbness, and/or tingling in the calf and top of the foot, and possibly weakness of the ankle on one side
- These syndromes can be isolated or occur together and with multiple nerves
- When lumbar stenosis causes signifcant symptoms, surgery can be considered
- Goal of surgery is to decompress the nerve and relieve symptoms
- Bone and soft tissue is surgically removed to take pressure off of nerves
- Common decompression surgeries are
- Laminectomy - overgrown bone (the lamina) and tissue is removed from behind the nerves
- Discectomy - displaced disc material is removed to take pressure off of nerves
- Under certain circumstances, decompression surgery is performed with fusion
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