This puts pressure on nerves and the spinal cord, causing pain in the back and lower body. The condition may also affect the stomach and urinary system. Spinal stenosis is more common in people 50 years old or older.
Spinal stenosis in the neck can cause: Numbness. Tingling or weakness in a hand, leg, foot or arm.
A spinal cord injury or a nerve disease may damage the nerves that help control the lower part of your colon. This is the part of the body that sends solid waste out of the body. This condition gets in the way of your normal ability to store and get rid of waste. It often causes constipation and bowel accidents.
Spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spaces in your spine, can compress your spinal cord and nerve roots exiting each vertebrae. Age-related changes in your spine is a common cause. Symptoms include back and/or neck pain, and numbness, tingling and weakness in your arms and legs.
If you have lumbar spinal stenosis, you may have trouble walking distances or find that you need to lean forward to relieve pressure on your lower back. You may also have pain or numbness in your legs. In more severe cases, you may have difficulty controlling your bowel and bladder.
Flare ups may be caused by muscle spasms, which can be caused by bending or twisting suddenly. They may be caused by an additional problem such as a slipped disc. Some patients may just reach a tipping point where their stenosis becomes symptomatic without any identifiable cause or event.
Acetaminophen (eg, Tylenol), aspirin, ibuprofen (eg, Motrin, Advil), and naproxen (eg, Aleve) are examples of OTC analgesics that your doctor may recommend for spinal stenosis.
They also complain of nausea, vomiting, dizziness, vertigo, sensitivity to sound, light and smells, widespread pain, weakness, clumsiness, balance problems, difficulty with memory and concentration, urinary urgency and frequency, disturbances in bowel habits, and fatigue.
Frequent urination or loss of bladder and bowel control is a serious symptom that requires immediate medical attention. It may be a marker of severe spinal stenosis due to greatly increased pressure on the nerve roots controlling the bladder or bowel ("cauda equina syndrome").
Issues in your spine or with your spinal nerves can cause problems in your hands, feet or your vision. If you are having vision issues like blurred vision, dizziness or headaches, you probably aren't going to assume the issue is housed in your spine, but it very well might be.
Narrowing of the spinal canal (central stenosis) presses on the spinal cord causing inflammation and weakness.
In most cases, the prognosis for spinal stenosis is very good. Many people can obtain good relief from their symptoms with nonsurgical treatment. In some cases, as the stenosis becomes more severe, the nonsurgical treatment becomes less effective.
Spinal stenosis can worsen over time and can cause permanent feeling of numbness, weakness, balance problems, incontinence, and paralysis. Or if you have medical conditions including: Osteoarthritis and bony spurs that form with age. Inflammatory spondyloarthritis (ex: ankylosing spondylitis)
The latest lumbar spinal stenosis treatment has been referred to with many different names, including non-fusion implant and dynamic stabilization system, among others. These names all refer to devices that are used in place of spinal fusion to provide stability and symptom relief.
Aortic stenosis is one of the most common and serious types of heart valve disease. Aortic stenosis can be debilitating, costly, and deadly. Survival rates without treatment for severe symptomatic aortic stenosis are low at 50% at 2 years after symptom onset, and 20% at 5 years.
While a spinal stenosis diagnosis will stay with you for life, many patients with spinal stenosis live life in the absence of pain or with minimal symptoms, thanks to a variety of treatment options.
In spinal stenosis, people typically experience less pain with leaning forward, and especially with sitting. Studies of the lumbar spine show that leaning forward can increase the space available for the nerves. Pain is usually made worse by standing up straight and walking.
Spinal stenosis symptoms tend to worsen the more you walk without treating it since the leading cause is a contraction of the spinal cord, which irritates the leg nerves. The irritation of the terms causes inflammation, and so this should be part of the treatment.
Many people with spinal stenosis find the most comfort sleeping on their side in “fetal position” — that is, with knees curled up toward the abdomen. Another alternative is to sleep in an adjustable bed or recliner that allows the head and knees to remain elevated.
Spinal stenosis is generally not progressive. The pain tends to come and go, but it usually does not progress with time. The natural history with spinal stenosis, in the majority of patients, is that of episodic periods of pain and dysfunction.
Cervical stenosis can cause CSF flow alterations which can result in increased intracranial pressure and buildup of waste products. Resulting symptoms are headaches and other neurological defects. It can also contribute to Alzheimer's Disease and other dementias.
Additional symptoms of spinal stenosis, generally as a result of spinal nerve root involvement within the lumbar spinal canal, may include general discomfort, weakness in the legs, numbness, or paresthesias.