musculoskeletal and connective tissue disorders
Lumbar Spinal Stenosis
Symptoms and Signs of Lumbar Spinal Stenosis
In patients with lumbar spinal stenosis, pain occurs in the buttocks, thighs, or calves during walking, running, climbing stairs, or even standing. This pain is referred to as neurogenic claudication. The pain is not relieved by standing still but by flexing the back or by sitting (although paresthesias may continue). Walking up hills is less painful than walking down because the back is slightly flexed. Patients may have pain, paresthesias, weakness, and diminished reflexes in the affected nerve root distribution. Rarely, sudden nerve rootlet compression resulting from LSS or a large disk herniation may cause Symptoms and Signs with distal leg paresis and sensory loss in and around the perineum and anus (saddle anesthesia), as well as bladder, bowel, and pudendal dysfunction; unlike in spinal cord injury, muscle tone and deep tendon reflexes are decreased in the legs. 