Spinal Stenosis Symptoms and Diagnosis
Spinal stenosis, despite its many variations, generally produces similar symptoms. There are some differences, however, and it can require different techniques and scans to determine a diagnosis.
Symptoms
The most common symptom of lumbar spinal stenosis is sciatica. Sciatica describes leg pain that may be accompanied by tingling, numbness, or weakness that travels from the low back through the buttock and down the back of the leg through the sciatic nerve. Spinal stenosis often produces leg pain with walking, called claudication, which often subsides with several minutes of rest sitting down. Typically, the longer a person with spinal stenosis stands, the worse the leg pain will become.
Spinal stenosis pain is often characterized by its slow development over time, its tendency to come and go, and its occurrence during walking or standing. A person with lumbar spinal stenosis will often bend forward or sit in a reclining position to relieve the pain.
Cervical stenosis can have more serious symptoms. In addition to leg pain, cervical stenosis can lead to arm pain (radiculopathy), deterioration in writing and other fine motor skills, and intermittent pain in the arms and legs when the head is bent forward. This is because cervical stenosis affects the nerves and the spinal cord more than lumbar spinal stenosis.
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