Ask Dr. Stephen Courtney: What Is Stenosis of the Back?
Channel: Dr. Stephen Courtney
Date: 13/12/2017

www.CourtneyMD.com
Dr. Stephen Courtney is a Board Certified Orthopedic Spine Surgeon treating neck and back disorders. His clinic is located in Plano, Texas.
I tell people it’s like having a heart attack to your back. As you get older, the arthritis goes to those facet joints. And when those facet joints get bigger, then what happens is the canal gets smaller. So when the canal gets smaller, it makes the canal tighter. So a lot of patients you see, you can see them in different stores, grocery stores or sitting on the bench or on the mall or they’re leaning forward. When they lean forward, what it does, it opens up that canal. When it opens up that canal, it takes the pressure off the spinal nerve roots and then they can take a little break and walk a little bit further. But stenosis is usually triggered by walking, usually the older patients. But some people are born with it but stenosis is just the tightening of the spinal canal.
Surgery definitely is an option. If you just have a lot of back pain or you can’t walk far, you can do laminectomy by just removing some of the bone here, sort of de-roof the spinal canal. Sometimes you use rods or screws based on what the patient complains about, sometimes injections. Usually, they’re laminectomy and/or with or without rods and screws to stabilize the back.