Good question! Spine surgeons aren’t certain the best treatment plan for spinal stenosis, after all conservative care is earning favorable examination in the medical research! OrthoIllinois Chiropractic provides non-surgical care that is quite relieving to McHenry spinal stenosis sufferers. Chiropractic patients in McHenry who havespinal stenosis know come to OrthoIllinois Chiropractic will find our care gentle and comfortable and applaud the research and guidelines behind its administration.

 

Before going further lets delve into what is spinal stenosis. Spinal stenosis is the result of narrowing in the spinal canal area. Lumbar spinal stenosis comes with age for many of us when degeneration of the spine begins to appear. This may have to do with how the spinal elements initially formed at birth. (Some people are born with narrow spinal canals.) It could also be a disc herniation that is injecting itself into the spinal canal, taking up the space that is intended for for the spinal nerves. Whatever the cause, spinal stenosis’ narrowing creates pain.

 

Often when a surgeon sees that a patient has spinal stenosis they will give surgical choices to open that narrowed space. There are many directions from which a patient may choose. One option is decompressive surgery. It is cost-effective for lumbar spinal stenosis, but surgical and conservative treatment approaches result in comparable quality of life at one year follow up. (1) Spinal fusion can also be a weapon against spinal stenosis. A Cochrane Database Review, a big deal in the world of research, reports that there is no significant difference at 6 months and 12 months post spine surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis. Cochrane pulled from 12,966 citations to conclude further that they have very little confidence to determine whether surgical or conservative care is better for lumbar spinal stenosis. They, therefore, offer no new clinical practice recommendations for doctors to follow. They do emphasize though that side-effects from surgery range from 10% to 24% and side effects from conservative care, 0%. There were no side effects from conservative care for lumbar spine stenosis in their review. Further, they report that there were no clear benefits seen with surgery versus no surgery. They warn clinicians to carefully inform patients about possible treatment options “especially given that conservative treatment options have results in no reported side effects.” (2)

 

When your chiropractor at OrthoIllinois Chiropractic observes spinal stenosis they will give chiropractic care and spinal manipulation to conservatively relieve the pain of spinal stenosis. OrthoIllinois Chiropractic is the site for McHenry conservative care of back pain. OrthoIllinois Chiropractic uses the Cox Technic system of spinal manipulation to open the spinal canal area by 28%, allowing the nerves to breathe, and drop intradiscal pressures to as low as -192mmHg. (3,4)

 

When lumbar spinal stenosis is causing you pain, schedule an appointment with OrthoIllinois Chiropractic, the McHenry chiropractic practice for gentle relief of back pain. OrthoIllinois Chiropractic chiropractic care at McHenry may well be the answer to the question of “how can I manage my pain from spinal stenosis?” for you!