Depending on the location of the affected nerve, he uses several treatments, including: If you smoke, we encourage you to quit, as the chemicals in tobacco constrict your blood vessels and reduce the oxygen to your spine, hindering the healing process. Better nutrition also supports the healing process. If you’re overweight or obese, losing weight can alleviate the pressure on your spine and relieve your spinal stenosis symptoms. Through physical therapy, we can improve your range of motion, relieve the compression on your nerves, strengthen your core’s supporting muscles, correct your posture and gait, and improve your balance. Physical therapyĪlthough spinal stenosis can occur in your neck, it’s most common in the lower back, where it limits mobility, triggers pain, and radiates symptoms to your legs. Anti-inflammatory medicationĪlthough it sounds simple, over-the-counter or prescription anti-inflammatory medications may be all you need to resolve your spinal stenosis symptoms. Shah provides a wide range of treatment options. Shah’s help.ĭepending on the severity of your spinal stenosis symptoms and the underlying cause, Dr. But if the structures in your narrowing spine touch or compress nearby nerves, you’re bound to feel back pain, weakness, tingling, burning, numbness, balance problems, and/or muscle cramps. It's possible to have spinal stenosis but experience no symptoms at all. Here, he explains the various treatments he offers at our two locations in Livingston and Colonia, New Jersey. Shah, our double-board certified specialist at SamWell Institute for Pain Management, is one of the country’s foremost experts on diagnosing and treating spinal stenosis and helping people overcome pain and debilitating symptoms. Not everyone experiences spinal stenosis to the same degree, though.ĭr. As all body parts do, your spine degenerates over time, its tissues thicken, and the bones compress. Similar to this review, it concluded there was a lack of evidence to suggest long-term benefits in treating chronic pain.Spinal stenosis - narrowing of the spinal canal - is almost inevitable as you age. "When coupled with the reality that these devices are very expensive and often break down there is clearly a problem here that should be of concern to regulators."Ī separate Cochrane review, in which the researchers were not involved, examined the effect of spinal cord stimulation versus placebo in people with chronic pain. Professor Chris Maher, Co-Director of Sydney Musculoskeletal Health, said: The review team provided a list of recommendations, including that future spinal cord stimulation clinical trials be at least 12 months, clearly document the number of people who experience adverse events and make comparisons with other pain treatment options. Most clinical trials only looked at the immediate impact of the device, which is a time frame of less than a month. The longest was a single six-month trial. There were no studies that investigated the long-term (more than 12 months) impact of spinal cord stimulation on low back pain. The review team found multiple gaps in clinical data. There are evidence-based physical and psychological therapies for back pain ensuring access to these is essential." Our findings further emphasize the urgent need to review funding arrangements for chronic pain care to help patients in their search for relief. "Low back pain is one of the leading causes of disability worldwide. "Our review of the clinical data suggests no sustained benefits to the surgery outweigh the costs and risks." Our review found that the long-term benefits and harms are essentially unknown," said lead researcher Dr Adrian Traeger from Sydney Musculoskeletal Health, an initiative of the University of Sydney, Sydney Local Health District and Northern Sydney Local Health District. "Spinal cord stimulation is invasive and has a great financial cost to people who choose surgery as a last resort to alleviate their pain. In Australia, the devices' long-term safety and performance are also being re-assessed by The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), the country's regulatory authority for therapeutic goods. The taskforce is reviewing the eligibility of current prostheses subsidized by Medicare. The review findings have been submitted to the Federal Department of Health and Aged Care prosthesis list review taskforce. Harms from spinal cord stimulation could include nerve damage, infection, and the electrical leads moving, all of which may need repeated surgeries. The researchers also found that adverse side effects to the surgery were poorly documented overall, preventing them from concluding the level of risk involved. There was little to no clinical data regarding the long-term effectiveness of spinal cord stimulation.
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