Spinal Stenosis Treatment Options: How Neurosurgeons Relieve Nerve Compression and Pain

Spinal stenosis happens when the spaces within your spine narrow and put pressure on your spinal cord or nearby nerves. Depending on where the narrowing occurs, spinal stenosis can cause back or neck pain, numbness, tingling, muscle weakness, and difficulty walking or standing for long periods. 

If you’re one of 103 million people struggling with spinal stenosis, it may be time to consider a neurologist’s help. 

Below, our team of expert providers at Link Integrated Healthcare explains how we can help relieve nerve compression.

What happens when you have spinal stenosis?

Your spinal canal provides a protected pathway for your spinal cord and nerves, but age-related changes can reduce the amount of room within or around that pathway.

Arthritis, bone spurs, thickened ligaments, bulging or herniated discs, and other changes can all contribute to this narrowing.

When this narrowing begins pressing on nerves, symptoms may include:

• Neck or back pain
• Pain that radiates into an arm or leg
• Numbness or tingling
• Muscle weakness
• Cramping or heaviness in the legs
• Difficulty walking or standing for extended periods
• Symptoms that improve when you sit or lean forward

Where you experience symptoms depends partly on where the stenosis occurs.

Lumbar spinal stenosis affects the lower back and commonly causes symptoms in the buttocks and legs. Cervical spinal stenosis occurs in the neck and can affect the spinal cord itself, which can potentially cause problems with your arms, hands, balance, coordination, and walking.

Does spinal stenosis always require surgery?

No. Seeing a neurosurgeon doesn’t automatically mean you’re headed for the operating room. In fact, one-third of people with spinal stenosis improve without surgery.

If your symptoms are mild or aren’t causing significant neurological problems, treatment may begin with conservative approaches such as physical therapy, activity modification, medications, or targeted injections.

These treatments can help manage inflammation and pain, improve strength and mobility, and make everyday activities easier.

However, conservative treatment may reduce your symptoms, but it doesn’t necessarily create more physical space around a severely compressed nerve.

If significant compression is causing constant pain, weakness, difficulty walking, or other neurological problems, surgery may become an appropriate next step.

How neurosurgeons relieve nerve compression

About 600,000 surgeries are performed each year to help with spinal stenosis. When spinal stenosis requires surgery, the basic goal is straightforward: give the affected nerves more room.

This is known as decompression.

The exact procedure depends on what’s causing the narrowing, where it’s located, and whether your spine is stable.

Laminectomy

The lamina forms part of the back of each vertebra. During a laminectomy, your Link Integrated Healthcare surgeon removes part or all of the lamina at the affected level to create additional space for compressed nerves.

The procedure may also address other tissue contributing to the narrowing, such as thickened ligaments or bone spurs.

Laminotomy

A laminotomy is a more limited decompression in which only a portion of the lamina is removed. This can provide access to the compressed nerve while preserving more of your surrounding spinal structures.

Discectomy

Sometimes a bulging or herniated disc contributes to nerve compression along with spinal stenosis. A discectomy removes the portion of disc material pressing against the affected nerve.

Depending on your condition, decompression techniques may be performed alone or together.

When is spinal fusion necessary?

Decompression creates space, but in some cases, removing the structures causing compression could leave the spine unstable.

Fusion permanently joins two or more vertebrae to stabilize a section of the spine. Your neurosurgeon may recommend it when spinal stenosis occurs alongside conditions such as spinal instability or certain cases of spondylolisthesis.

We relieve the pressure, not just the pain

Pain medication can temporarily mask symptoms, but when spinal stenosis physically compresses a nerve or the spinal cord, our team first examines the underlying anatomy.

Our neurosurgery team can evaluate your symptoms, review appropriate imaging, identify where compression is occurring, and determine whether conservative treatment, minimally invasive spine surgery, or another approach offers the best path forward.

If spinal stenosis is limiting how long you can stand, how far you can walk, or the activities you enjoy, contact Link Neuroscience Institute today to schedule an evaluation and learn about your treatment options.

You can also use our Request an Appointment Button to get started  in Oxnard, Santa Barbara, or Camarillo, California.