Treatment Options
Once we have diagnosed that you have spinal canal stenosis, we use various treatment methods, depending on the severity and the symptoms. Our consultants and therapists will develop an individual treatment concept for you.
If the narrowing of the vertebral canal is not yet very advanced, conservative measures such as physiotherapy can often help. The goal of our treatment programme is to relieve your pain significantly and improve your quality of life.
In some cases, spinal injections, that can be performed as a day case procedure, may be appropriate and can relieve some of the acute pain.
In many cases most conservative treatments (manipulation, physiotherapy, medication or injections) are unlikely to be of much long-term benefit, and the symptoms rarely improve permanently without surgery to take the pressure off the nerves (decompression).
The objective of surgery is to remove the material (for example the excess bone and ‘thickened’ ligament) from the back of the spinal canal to give the nerve roots and/or cauda equina more room.
The nature of spinal surgery is not to ‘cure’ and it cannot prevent further degeneration of the spine but is aimed at providing benefit with a good percentage improvement and relief of leg symptoms. Good relief from leg symptoms following decompression surgery usually occurs in approximately 70–80% of cases. This is not necessarily felt immediately, but over a period of time, often several months.