[Spinal stenosis]

Abstract

Spinal stenosis is an abnormal narrowing of the spinal canal that mainly occurs in the cervical and lumbar regions. The number of the patients of spinal stenosis is increasing in the aging society like Japan because the major reason for the stenosis is the degeneration of the spinal components including the intervertebral disc, facet, and ligamentum flavum. The development of the disease-concept is historically different between cervical spinal stenosis and lumbar spinal stenosis. Therefore, some confusion is still present in the definition and diagnosing criteria of these conditions. In this report, we mainly describe about the degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis, which is most common in the outpatient clinic, concerning the diagnosis, various options of conservative therapy, and the surgical indication.