What is lumbar spinal stenosis?

  Lumbar spinal stenosis is common in people over middle age, more men than women, and the main symptoms of patients are long-term recurrent lumbar and leg pain and intermittent claudication. Intermittent claudication refers to the patient’s unilateral or bilateral lumbago, numbness and weakness of the lower limbs, and even claudication after starting to walk or after walking a certain distance (usually a few hundred meters), but after a few moments of rest by squatting or sitting down, the symptoms can be quickly relieved or disappear, and the patient can continue to walk, and then after walking for a period of time, the above symptoms reappear.  The nature of the pain is soreness or burning pain, some can be radiated to the outer thigh or front, mostly bilateral, and the symptoms can appear alternately in the left and right legs. When standing and walking, lumbar and leg pain or numbness and weakness appear, and the pain and limp gradually worsen, even unable to continue walking, and the symptoms improve after rest, and cycling is not hindered.  When frontal and lateral x-ray films of the lumbar spine are taken, changes such as narrowing of the intervertebral space, osteophytes, bone spur formation and slipped vertebrae are often seen between lumbar 4 and 5. Intravertebral angiography, CT, and MRI examinations can help clarify the diagnosis.