Spinal Narrowing (Spinal Stenosis) Back Pain Specialist Doctors NYC

Spinal Narrowing (Spinal Stenosis) patients visit Manhattan Pain and Sports Associates seek various treatment from our specialist doctors to treat their back pain. When you develop narrowing of the spine, or spinal stenosis, your back pain comes from the pressure placed on the nerves within your spine. The condition typically affects any one or more of three places on your spinal column:

  • The canal in the center of your back where the nerves run through
  • At the roots, where the nerves run out from the center of your spine
  • The openings between the bones, or vertebrae, where the nerves run outward

Spinal narrowing can occur in small areas or large parts of your back. You may feel back pain localized in one spot or it can radiate down your arms or legs. When the spinal stenosis happens in your lower back, chances are you feel it in your legs too; conversely, when the narrowing happens on the top of your spine, your shoulders and arms may feel numb or painful.

Why Is It Happening Now?

Spinal stenosis most commonly occurs in people over the age of 50. It’s often a side effect of degenerative disc disease that hits both sedentary and active adults. Spinal narrowing rarely affects children or young adults except in cases where the child was born with a narrow spine or is involved in an accident.

Both rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis can lead to spinal stenosis. Other conditions, unrelated to age that can lead to spinal narrowing can include:

  • Paget’s disease — it causes excessive breakdown of bones
  • Trauma resulting from a direct hit to the spine that causes bone fragments to penetrate the spinal canal
  • Spinal tumors that cause soft tissue to displace bones
  • Calcium deposits that can press on the nerves in your back

Symptoms of Spinal Narrowing (Spinal Stenosis) Vary

There’s a good chance that you could have spinal stenosis and not even know it. Back pain (or pain of any kind)is not always a result of the condition. However, when you seek treatment from a pain management doctor for your back pain, very often you’ll display certain symptoms that may include:

  • Slow onset of pain over an extended period of time
  • Leg or arm weakness, pain or numbness
  • Sciatica that causes pain to radiate down one leg
  • Foot disorders
  • Problems with your bladder or bowel movements
  • Sexual dysfunction

After collecting a detailed medical history and other imaging tests, your NYC pain management specialist may order a myelogram or bone scan to help diagnose spinal stenosis. This test relies on dye that’s injected into your system. It can help confirm spinal narrowing as the cause of your pain.

Treatment Options For Spinal Narrowing (Spinal Stenosis)

Non-invasive treatments are available at Manhattan Pain and Sports Associates such as physical therapy, medications and epidural steroid injections can relieve the pain though they cannot permanently fix spinal stenosis. Some people require spinal surgery to completely eradicate the problem, especially when mobility is drastically affected and there is severe pain which doesn’t respond to conservative treatments.

Get the Spinal Narrowing (Spinal Stenosis) Pain Relief You Need

At Manhattan Pain and Sports Associates you’ll get the spinal stenosis pain management and care you need to reduce or eliminate your acute or chronic spinal stenosis pain. Because when you’re in pain — whether it’s from an accident, age or ailment — you want relief. Appropriate and targeted spinal stenosis pain management and treatment starts with a proper diagnosis from your NYC spinal stenosis pain management doctor.

Your NYC spinal stenosis pain management doctor’s goal is to get you back to your normal routine with minimal downtime. After your spinal stenosis diagnosis is confirmed, your doctor begins your treatment plan with the most conservative pain relief treatment.

Manhattan Pain and Sports Associates
51 East 25th St, 4th Floor, Ste B
New York, NY 10010
(212) 533-3954