The Value of a Spinal Stenosis Diagnosis

Receiving a spinal stenosis diagnosis from your doctor is the first step in overcoming the symptoms that you are experiencing. The pain, stiffness, numbness, tingling, muscle weakness, and muscle spasms are certainly not fun to live with, but there are treatments for them. A spinal stenosis diagnosis will allow your doctor to confirm that you are, indeed, suffering from spinal stenosis, and, if so, formulate a treatment plan for you based on your own personal health, lifestyle, physical fitness, and other circumstances.

What a Diagnosis Will Be Able to Tell You

Not only will your spinal stenosis diagnosis be able to confirm whether you have the condition or not, but it can also determine the underlying cause of your spinal stenosis. Spinal stenosis is essentially just a term that describes the narrowing of channels in the spinal column, so clearly, something has to actually cause these passageways to narrow. The manner in which your doctor will conduct your diagnosis will usually allow him or her to determine which specific cause is to blame for your spinal stenosis, be it spondylolisthesis, a bulging disc, or some other form of spinal abnormality. And, your doctor will be able to better tailor a specific treatment plan for you when the true spinal abnormality is made known through the spinal stenosis diagnosis.

After You Leave the Doctor's Office

After your spinal stenosis diagnosis has been confirmed, your doctor will likely put together a treatment regimen for you to follow. This treatment plan will probably consist of one or a combination of various conservative treatment methods. The treatments your doctor will suggest vary from patient to patient, but the most commonly recommended techniques include physical therapy, exercise, thermotherapy and cryotherapy, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), bed rest, and corticosteroid injections. All of these methods are aimed at reducing the pain and other symptoms you experience, and are less concerned with reversing the condition itself. In most cases, spinal stenosis is manageable, and these conservative methods that work to reduce the pain and other symptoms will provide satisfactory levels of relief.