Spinal Foraminal Stenosis

The term “Stenosis” means narrowing. Foraminal Stenosis is the narrowing of the small openings where your nerve roots exit at each level of the spinal column. Foraminal stenosis is when these small openings start getting too tight. Those nerves are like electrical wires, and when the doorway narrows, the wires get pinched, causing irritation to the exiting nerves.

This can cause you to feel things like:

·  A nagging ache in your neck or lower back

·  Numbness or tingling that runs from your neck into your arms, hands and fingers or from your low back into your hips, buttocks, legs, feet and toes, almost like they’re falling asleep.

·  You may also experience weakness, like your grip isn’t as strong or your legs feel heavy.

Foraminal stenosis usually shows up in the neck or lower back, since those areas do the most bending, twisting, and carrying for you every day.

Why does it happen? Disc degeneration is normal to our aging process and our discs lose some of their hydration, similar to our skin wrinkling. Additionally, our bones may grow little spurs, or arthritis causes the tissues surrounding the nerves to thicken. Traumatic injuries, such as whiplash or a fall, can also cause disc herniations.

What you can do about it:

·  Short-term use of Anti-inflammatory medicine or even epidural injections can

calm the irritation

·  Many people find relief with physical therapy to build strength and open up the

space around the nerves

·  If symptoms don’t improve with conservative treatment or a series of epidural

steroid injections, and your symptoms start limiting what you can do, a simple

minimally invasive outpatient surgery like foraminotomy can widen the opening so

the nerve can glide freely again.