Do you always feel like you can’t walk long distances lately? Or do you feel weakness, numbness, pain and soreness in your lower extremities when you exercise a little? If you meet these symptoms, you are likely to have lumbar spinal stenosis. Patients suffering from lumbar spinal stenosis often walk a few dozen meters to get back and leg pain, numbness and soreness in the lower extremities, and need to rest for a while to relieve them and continue walking. Walking again, pain again, and rest again, but riding a bicycle for several hours does not cause pain, which is a typical manifestation of lumbar spinal stenosis, and may also induce or aggravate these manifestations under conditions of exertion, trauma and cold, etc. Severe cases may affect daily life or even rest and sleep. Most patients’ symptoms gradually worsen with age. From the original pain and swelling in both lower extremities after walking for half an hour to walking for more than 10 minutes, and from an attack once every few months to one every few weeks or even days. If the nerve compression caused by lumbar spinal stenosis is not treated, it can cause loss of function in the lower extremities and can also lead to urinary, bowel and sexual dysfunction. Other conditions can cause similar symptoms, such as vascular disease. At this point you will need to visit a spine surgery specialist, and your doctor can help you determine if your symptoms are caused by lumbar stenosis or another cause and develop a treatment plan. What is lumbar spinal stenosis and what are the causes? Lumbar spinal stenosis is a degenerative degeneration of the lumbar spinal canal, nerve root canal, lateral saphenous fossa or intervertebral foramen, resulting in abnormal morphology and volume of bony or fibrous structures and narrowing of one or more canal lumens in a single plane or multiple planes, causing clinical symptoms due to compression of nerve roots, cauda equina and blood vessels. It is necessary to squat down and rest for a while to get relief and continue walking. Do I need treatment for lumbar spinal canal? What are the treatment methods? First of all, you should go to a regular hospital for regular treatment by a specialist in spine surgery, not to blindly consult a doctor, which increases the economic burden and does not receive the correct guidance, and may even delay the disease, misdiagnosis and misdiagnosis, leading to serious adverse consequences. At present, most of the early stage of lumbar stenosis can be treated conservatively, including medication and physical therapy. Medications include non-steroidal anti-inflammatory painkillers such as Cialis, Emmerich, Fotarim and Fenbuterol, which help reduce inflammation and decrease pain, and neurotrophic drugs such as Micronutrients. If the symptoms are heavy and recurrent for a long period of time, further examination is necessary. The specialist will make a comprehensive analysis based on your clinical symptoms, imaging data and general condition, and develop a detailed treatment plan for you that suits your condition. Some patients think that the doctor will prescribe these drugs, I can buy some and use them myself, but in fact, it is not advisable to use Fotarim, Fenbid and other painkillers for a long time, because these drugs may lead to gastrointestinal ulcers without proper guidance and produce adverse consequences. The nerve roots and spinal cord need to be reviewed regularly. How can lumbar spinal stenosis be prevented? As we age, the degenerative changes that cause lumbar spinal stenosis occur, so there are no effective measures to prevent lumbar spinal stenosis. However, maintaining good sitting and standing posture and actively exercising the muscles of the low back may help slow the onset and progression of degenerative changes that cause lumbar spinal stenosis, and thus slow the onset of lumbar spinal stenosis. At the same time, avoid cold and humidity, strain, bending over to pick up things and lumbar trauma. Is surgery necessary for lumbar spinal stenosis and what is the effect of surgical treatment? Patients suffering from lumbar spinal stenosis whose symptoms are not relieved or even aggravated after conservative treatment, or whose urinary and fecal functions are progressively impaired, need surgery in order to avoid paraplegia due to degeneration and necrosis of the nerve tissue under long-term compression. The purpose of surgical treatment is to remove the structures that are compressing the nerve tissue, and such surgery is called lumbar decompression surgery.