Spinal Stenosis Treatment: Non-operative
This might come as a surprise to many but only less than 5% of people with Spinal Stenosis ever require surgery. Most often, people can get relief from spinal pain through various non-surgical treatments such as medication, injections, at-home exercises and physiotherapy.
Non-Surgical Treatment
If you are suffering from Spinal Stenosis, your spine specialist might recommend you several non-surgical options for treating the condition. Most often, the treatment is a combination of more than one type of therapy. For instance, your specialist might combine medication with physiotherapy.
Let’s look at some of the non-surgical treatment options for Spinal Stenosis one by one.
Medication:- There are a number of medicines available for relieving pain, inflammation and muscle spasm. You might get most medicines over-the-counter, but it always advisable to not combine these with the prescribed ones, useless you have consulted your specialist. Just like other medicines, OTC drugs can also cause serious side effects.
Injections:- One of the most common type of injection for alleviating the symptoms of Spinal Stenosis is an epidural injection. An epidural injection places steroids into the space surrounding specific nerve roots, the epidural space. This helps in reducing acute pain and inflammation. Usually a course of three injections is given to the patient over a period of several weeks.
Physiotherapy:- Physiotherapy generally combines inactive therapy and therapeutic exercises. Inactive therapy might include heat or ice packs, massage or electrical stimulation. Inactive therapy prepares a patient for the active therapy sessions by relaxing tight muscles and easing discomfort. Therapeutic exercises might include stretching and various other prescribed exercises for stabilizing the spine, building endurance and increasing flexibility. There are a number of spine physiotherapy clinics in Delhi that help the patients in dealing with the problems related to Spinal stenosis.
What if I'm one of those 5% who need surgery?
Some of the patients do require spine surgery for treating the symptoms of Spinal Stenosis. Any kind of surgery is an important as well as a serious decision. Your spine specialist will take quality time to thoroughly examine surgical options for you. The aim of a spinal surgery is to relieve the pressure from the spinal cord/nerve roots. The type of surgery performed depends on the location, cause and type of Spinal Stenosis.