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What helps spinal stenosis besides surgery?
Spine Health | Last Active: 1 day ago | Replies (193)Comment receiving replies
@pablo81 My 80 year old cousin just had a laminectomy on his lumbar spine. That does not remove any disks, but instead opens up space for the spinal cord by opening up the bone around it. The discs remain in place between the vertebrae. He did very well, and was up and around right away, and stopped pain medication after a week. He was pretty active and golfed for many years. I think he stopped that because of knee problems.
You may want to get some other opinions. What is it that worries you so much about surgery? Believe me, I have been there, but I learned how to face my fears and in doing that, I changed my life and built resilience.
Replies to "@pablo81 My 80 year old cousin just had a laminectomy on his lumbar spine. That does..."
What worries me? The removal of 3 levels of the spinous processes and thus the low back support that it provides.. How many levels has your 80 year old cousin had removed? Usually when you get one level removed it affects the next lower level etc. which usually requires fusion or some type of low back support such as Co flex....With 3 levels I do not believe anything exists that I am aware of. Probably need to get other opinions.
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Data suggests that most open back laminectomy surgeries are unnecessary. Removing bone is not good for the stability of the spine.
Usually a laminectomy at one level places additional strain on level below because of loss of spinal integrity which results in followup surgery a few years later. You may get short term relief but undesirable long term. Of course how much bone is removed is a key factor. I have had a endoscopic discectomy on l5/S1 for sciatic in 2019. It is minimal invasive i.e. no cutting and it worked well. A major concern is that doing a triple laminectomy will exacerbate my problems as I cannot visualize how my spine will be protected with such a large portion of my spinous processes removed. I am balancing all of this with my tolerance for pain and thus far I am okay with the pain levels.