Lumbar spinal stenosis? Numbness and pain in the lower extremities caused by compression of the cauda equina or nerve roots due to aging, hyperplasia of the small joints of the lumbar spine, hypertrophy of the vertebral plates, and thickening of the ligamentum flavum. What are the causes of lumbar spinal stenosis? Disc herniation, lumbar small joint hyperplasia, plate hypertrophy, ligamentum flavum hypertrophy, ligamentous ossification disease, lumbar spondylolisthesis, etc. What are the symptoms of lumbar spinal stenosis? Clinical manifestations: neurogenic intermittent claudication, where the patient has to stop walking after walking a certain distance with gradually increasing pain, numbness, heaviness and weakness. After squatting or bending down, the symptoms are reduced or disappear, and then the patient can walk again. The pain or numbness may occur in the calf, foot, posterior, lateral or anterior thigh, both lower extremities or one lower extremity. How is lumbar spinal stenosis treated? Conservative treatment: bed rest; physical therapy; medication; epidural block and nerve root block for severe pain; surgical treatment: indications for surgery: (1) developmental lumbar spinal stenosis; (2) sphincter dysfunction; (3) severe loss of nerve root conduction function; (4) recurrent attacks affecting work and normal life; commonly used surgical procedures: (1) decompression; (2) decompression plus fusion.