When narrowing in your spine compresses your spinal nerves, you get foraminal stenosis. Even severe narrowing rarely causes symptoms. Upon the onset of symptoms, pain and neurological complications may manifest. Rest, physical therapy, and surgery are all foraminal stenosis treatment.
Foraminal stenosis treatment typically includes pain management techniques such as physical therapy, medications, and epidural steroid injections. In severe cases, surgery may be recommended to relieve nerve compression and improve mobility.
Foraminal Stenosis
Foraminal stenosis narrows spinal cord nerve exits. This variant of spinal stenosis impacts the neural foramen, the openings located on either side of the spine. Formal stenosis is like an electrical cord wedged between a door and frame when closed. Pressure on the cord can damage its electrical conductivity. Foraminal stenosis also presses nerves. That can disrupt nerve signals, causing nerve pain and sometimes permanent nerve damage.
How is Foraminal Stenosis Treated and Cured?
Foraminal stenosis can be treated in some people. There are many treatments. Your health history, foraminal stenosis cause(s), and other factors may limit your options. Your doctor knows best what treatments they recommend. If you’re symptom-free, you may not need treatment. Conservative foraminal stenosis treatments are often recommended for early symptoms like pain. Having incontinence, weakness, or paralysis usually requires surgery or intervention.
Treatments fall into three categories:
Conservative Methods
Conservative treatments for foraminal stenosis are usually first. Oral medications, activity changes, and other noninvasive methods are typical.
- Rest: Movement reduction can help stenosis, especially after injury-related inflammation and swelling.
- PT: This treatment can reduce foraminal stenosis symptoms by improving strength and flexibility.
- Anti-inflammatory oral drugs: NSAIDs may reduce spinal nerve inflammation. That may ease foraminal stenosis.
- Oral steroids: These reduce local inflammation and swelling.
- Oral opioids: Usually used temporarily, these treat acute pain. Because opioid use disorder and opioid-induced pain disorders are possible.
Therapeutic Interventions
Conservative treatments are inferior to interventional ones. Steroid injections around the spinal nerve can help. These use X-ray guidance to ensure injection accuracy. These injections may delay direct treatment.
Surgical Procedures
Most modern spinal decompression surgeries are minimally invasive. They make smaller incisions to reduce bleeding, pain, and recovery time. Surgery options include:
- Foreman surgery: Foraminotomies widen neural foramen. Foraminectomy also widens the foramen by removing surrounding tissue.
- Surgery on facets: To relieve spinal cord and nerve pressure, facetectomy removes an entire facet joint.
- Lamina surgery: Laminotomy removes a small section of bone and soft tissue from a vertebra that presses on the spinal cord or nerves. A larger vertebra center is removed during laminectomy.
- Bone spur removal: Bone spurs (osteophytes) pressing on spinal nerves can be removed.
- Spinal stimulator: This involves implanting a spinal cord-connected electrical stimulator. Stimulator sends mild electrical current to spinal cord cells. Cells cannot send and receive pain signals due to the current. If surgery fails, a spinal cord stimulator can help.
Symptoms
The pain of foraminal stenosis may develop over years. Consider these foraminal stenosis symptoms:
- Upper back, neck, or shoulder pain
- Numbness, tingling, or loss of feeling
- Poor shoulder or arm raise
- Muscle cramps
- A “pins and needles” feeling
- These symptoms are often radicular, meaning the pain radiates along the nerve. Patients with cervical spinal stenosis may experience neck, shoulder, and arm pain
Diagnosis
Schedule a consultation and provide a complete medical history to diagnose foraminal stenosis. A physical exam will help a pain management doctor in Dallas to identify movement limitations, reflex loss, and pain. The diagnosis can be confirmed by MRIs, CT scans, and x-rays.
Causes of Foraminal Stenosis
- Narrow spinal bones cause neural foraminal stenosis.
- The risk of neural foraminal stenosis rises with age. Normal aging wear and tear can narrow. Age causes spine disks to shrink, dry out, and bulge.
- Injuries and underlying conditions can also cause it in younger people.
- Neural foraminal stenosis can result from bone spurs from degenerative conditions like osteoarthritis or a narrow spine.
- Skeletal diseases: Paget’s disease, herniated disk, thickened ligaments near the spine, trauma, scoliosis, abnormal spine curve, dwarfism, achondroplasia, rare tumors.
What Conditions Complicate Foraminal Stenosis?
Foraminal stenosis complications are rare, especially serious ones. Complications can disrupt your life and routine. Some serious conditions require treatment to prevent progression and other issues.
Possible complications include:
- Chronic ache.
- Sciatica-related nerve pain.
- Nerve damage.
- Nerve root-related muscle weakness or paralysis.
- Pressure on bladder and bowel nerves causes incontinence.
- Anxiety and depression related to pain.
- Pain that limits mobility and prevents physical activity or independence.
Conclusion
Most people with foraminal stenosis are unaware. Because most cases are symptomless. Pain and nerve issues from foraminal stenosis can disrupt your daily life. Severe cases are rare, and there are several treatments. Consult a doctor of pain management clinic Dallas tx, if you suspect foraminal stenosis. You may avoid more serious symptoms or complications. Early foraminal stenosis treatment is easier for pain and nerve issues. Thus, foraminal stenosis is less likely to limit your life and enjoyment.
