What To Do With Lumbar Spinal Stenosis?

Good question! Spine surgeons aren’t sure about the best route for spinal stenosis, still conservative care is obtaining a higher regard in the medical research! Executive Chiropractic of Iowa delivers non-surgical care that eases discomfort for West Des Moines spinal stenosis sufferers. The West Des Moines chiropractic patients dealing with spinal stenosis come to Executive Chiropractic of Iowa will find our care gentle and comfortable and praise the research and protocols that are the pillars of its administration.

 

First of all, what is spinal stenosis? Spinal stenosis is what happens when the spinal canal area is narrowed. Lumbar spinal stenosis comes with age for many of us when erosion of the spine develops. This may have to do with how the spinal elements were formed from square one at birth. (In some cases people are born with narrow spinal canals.) It could also be a disc herniation that is inserting itself into the spinal canal, taking up the space that is designed for the spinal nerves. Regardless of the cause, spinal stenosis’ narrowing causes pain.

 

Often when a surgeon identifies that a patient has spinal stenosis they will give surgical options to enlarge that narrowed space. There are many paths from which one may choose. Decompressive surgery is one such kind. It is a financially friendly choice 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 alternative. 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)

 

Executive Chiropractic of Iowa's chiropractor recognizes spinal stenosis and will offer chiropractic care and spinal manipulation to conservatively relieve the pain of spinal stenosis. Executive Chiropractic of Iowa is the location for West Des Moines conservative care of back pain. Executive Chiropractic of Iowa 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)

 

If you suffer from pain due to lumbar spinal stenosis, contact Executive Chiropractic of Iowa, the West Des Moines chiropractic practice for gentle relief of back pain. Executive Chiropractic of Iowa chiropractic care at West Des Moines most certainly is the answer to the question of “how can I manage my pain from spinal stenosis?” for you!