Why You Shouldn’t Delay Spinal Stenosis Treatment

Spinal stenosis happens when the passageway through your spine gets narrower and compresses nerves in and around your spinal cord. Each of your vertebrae, which are the stacked bones that comprise your spine, have channels in them called foramen. Nerves travel out of your spinal cord and through these channels to every part of your body. 

At DFW Spine Joint and Pain in Fort Worth, Texas, Nikki Fox, DO, and Amy Gregor, NP, can treat the conditions that cause your foramen to get narrower and often compress nerves. Based on your symptoms, they explore your spine for age-related changes, congenital disorders, and injuries that result in pressure on spinal nerves. These include:

• Degenerative disc disease
• Disc herniations
• Thickening of spinal ligaments
• Ankylosing spondylitis
• Scoliosis
• Spinal arthritis
• Spinal fractures
• Cysts, tumors, and other growths

Experiencing spinal conditions like these and their resulting spinal stenosis is far from uncommon. In fact, up to 40% of people have some form of spinal stenosis by their 60th birthday. You might not initially notice any symptoms, but when you do, it’s imperative that you contact our office for an evaluation. 

Recognize the signs of spinal stenosis

Though you might not feel anything unusual at first, spinal stenosis tends to get worse over time as many untreated conditions do. Even if your condition stays symptomless for years, it can eventually cause radiculopathy resulting from nerve compression or injury. 

Radiculopathy can cause pain, dysfunction, and other neurological symptoms in various areas of your body. The location of your symptoms depends on the exact nerve or nerve root compressed by spinal stenosis. If you feel pain, numbness, or tingling in your hands and arms, the source of the pain is most likely in your cervical spine, which is the portion in your neck. Nerves from this area allow your hands and arms to move and feel sensations. 

To locate the compressed nerves, and the spinal condition or degeneration causing your spinal stenosis, DFW Spine Joint and Pain guides you through a series of motions in the office and might also test your reflexes and sense of touch. They might also use X-ray imaging to evaluate your vertebrae and surrounding structures. 

The risks of avoiding treatment

Neurological symptoms that come with spinal stenosis such as pain and weakness tend to get worse over time, especially if the condition or injury causing your spinal stenosis is degenerative or goes without treatment. It may even reach the point at which you experience permanent weakness in a particular muscle group. But this isn’t the sole reason early care is crucial for spinal stenosis. 

You might never see the connection on your own, but bladder and bowel complications as well as other symptoms originating in your pelvis can arise if spinal stenosis is left untreated. They include:

• Urinary incontinence
• Impaired bowel control
• Sexual dysfunction
• Loss of sexual sensation

This complication, called cauda equina syndrome, happens because of increased pressure on the nerve roots controlling your bladder and bowel.

Without immediate and appropriate care, cauda equina syndrome can cause permanent paralysis. While early treatment for cauda equina syndrome is preferable to delayed treatment, your best option is to avoid it in the first place by treating spinal stenosis as soon as you notice symptoms. 

Reach out to us today

Do you have unexplained neurological symptoms? Find out if they come from some form of spinal stenosis. Call our office or schedule an appointment online to review your options for treatment today.