Johns Hopkins Health Alert
Should You Consider Surgery for Spinal Stenosis?
This Health Alert is intended for readers interested in learning about the prevention, diagnosis, and management of back pain.
Spinal stenosis – a narrowing of the spinal canal – affects many people in their 50s and 60s and can cause severe pain in the back, buttocks, thighs, and calves. Recently, a reader asked: I've had back pain from lumbar spinal stenosis for nearly six months. Should I consider surgery or just continue with conservative treatment even though it doesn't seem to be helping? Here’s our advice.
You might want to consider surgery for your spinal stenosis, since you've had no relief from conservative treatment. In fact, a recent study in The New England Journal of Medicine found that surgery to decompress the spinal nerves is likely to be the better solution to relieve the pain of spinal stenosis in someone who has had symptoms for at least three months.
This analysis, from the landmark Spine Patient Outcomes Research Trial (SPORT), included 654 people who were candidates for surgery and had symptoms from spinal stenosis without degenerative spondylolisthesis for at least three months. Ultimately, 400 of the people had surgery for spinal stenosis. After two years, twice as many people who had surgery said they had a major improvement in their back condition compared with those who had nonsurgical care, which consisted of physical therapy, a home exercise program, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to ease pain. In addition, more of those who had surgery said they felt less pain and their ability to function improved.
Nonsurgical treatments can lead to modest improvements in symptoms caused by lumbar spinal stenosis, and it's likely your symptoms won't get worse if you decide not to have surgery. But to relieve your pain, surgery for spinal stenosis appears to be a better choice.
Posted in Back Pain on April 30, 2010
Reviewed January 2011
Medical Disclaimer: This information is not intended to substitute for the advice of a physician. Click here for additional information: Johns Hopkins Health Alerts Disclaimer
Notify Me
Would you like us to inform you when we post new Back Pain Health Alerts?
Comments
Health Alerts registered users may post comments and share experiences here at their own discretion. We regret that questions on individual health concerns to the Johns Hopkins editors cannot be answered in this space.
The views expressed here do not constitute medical advice, and do not represent the position of Johns Hopkins Medicine or Remedy Health Media, LLC, which has no responsibility for any comments posted on this site.
Post a Comment
Already a subscriber?
Login
New to Johns Hopkins Health Alerts?
