Lumbar Spinal Stenosis

Medical Author: Jason C. Eck, DO, MS
Medical Editor: William C. Shiel, Jr., MD, FACP, FACR

• What is lumbar spinal stenosis?
• What causes lumbar spinal stenosis?
• What are the symptoms of lumbar spinal stenosis?
• How is lumbar spinal stenosis diagnosed?
• What is the treatment for lumbar spinal stenosis?
• What can be done to prevent lumbar spinal stenosis?
• Lumbar Spinal Stenosis At A Glance

What is lumbar spinal stenosis?

The lumbar spine is made up of five vertebral bodies in the lower back. Nerves coming off the spinal cord travel though the spinal canal and exit the canal through small openings on the sides of the vertebral called foramen. Lumbar stenosis (spinal stenosis) is a condition whereby either the spinal canal (central stenosis) or vertebral foramen (foraminal stenosis) becomes narrowed. If the narrowing is substantial, it causes compression of the nerves, which causes the painful symptoms of lumbar spinal stenosis.

What causes lumbar spinal stenosis?

The most common cause of lumbar spinal stenosis is degenerative arthritis. As with other joints in the body arthritis commonly occurs in the spine as part of the normal ageing process. This can lead to loss of the cartilage between the bones at the joints, formation of bone spurs (osteophytes), loss of the normal height of the discs between the vertebrae of the spine (degenerative disc disease), and overgrowth (hypertrophy) of the ligamentous structures. Each of these processes reduces the normal space available for the nerves and can directly press on nerve tissues to cause lumbar spinal stenosis.

Lumbar spinal stenosis can also be caused by other conditions that decrease the space of the spinal canal or vertebral foramen. These can include:

• tumor,
  
  
• infection, and
  
  
• various metabolic bone disorders, such as Paget's disease of bone.

These causes are much less common than degenerative arthritis.

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