That is  an excellent question! Spine surgeons are not sure what is best for spinal stenosis, after all conservative care is gathering more and more attention in the medical research! Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC offers non-surgical care that is quite soothing to La Grande spinal stenosis sufferers. Our patients at La Grande with spinal stenosis come to Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC will find our care gentle and comfortable and applaud the research and procedures that are the pillars of its administration.

 

First of all, what is spinal stenosis? Spinal stenosis is what happens when the spinal canal area is narrowed. Lumbar spinal stenosis happens with age for a number of us when erosion of the spine develops. It may be due to how the spinal elements developed initially. (Sometimes people are born with narrow spinal canals.) Spinal stenosis could also be caused by a disc herniation that is injecting itself into the spinal canal, taking up the space that is meant for the spinal nerves. No matter the cause, spinal stenosis’ narrowing creates pain.

 

Often when a surgeon observes that a patient has spinal stenosis they will offer surgical choices to enlarge that narrowed space. There are many directions from which you may take. Decompressive surgery is one such kind. It is a financially friendly choice for lumbar spinal stenosis, but surgical and conservative treatment approaches result in comparable quality of life at one year follow up. (1) Also a patient may contemplate spinal fusion. 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)

 

Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC's chiropractor diagnoses spinal stenosis and will provide chiropractic care and spinal manipulation to conservatively relieve the pain of spinal stenosis. Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC is the locale for La Grande conservative care of back pain. Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC 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)

 

If you suffer from pain due to lumbar spinal stenosis, contact Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC, the La Grande chiropractic practice for gentle relief of back pain. Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC chiropractic care at La Grande is the answer to the question of “what to do with spinal stenosis?” for you!