Treatment of degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis.

Spinal stenosis is a narrowing of the vertebral canal that compresses spinal nerves and may cause leg pain and difficulty walking. The symptoms of degenerative lumbar stenosis commonly occur in elderly adults and can be treated conservatively with pain-relieving agents or aggressively with decompressive surgery. Most studies of the effectiveness of treatments are poor in quality; however, there appear to be potential relationships between treatments, patient characteristics, and treatment outcomes. Studies indicate the following: (1) local anesthetic block can reduce symptoms on a short-term basis, while epidural steroids offer no additional benefit; (2) patients with moderate or severe symptoms benefit more from surgery than from conservative therapy; and (3) patients with leg pain and severely restricted walking ability regain mobility after surgery. Definitive evidence-based conclusions about the efficacy of conservative or surgical treatments await the results of well-designed clinical trials.