Monday, March 22, 2010

New Treatment for Spinal Stenosis

Dr. Webb is now offering an advanced new procedure called minimally invasive lumbar decompression, or MILD. The MILD procedure is a great technological advance over invasive surgical fusion.

For patients with back pain due to lumbar spinal stenosis, the MILD procedure may be the key to avoiding invasive back surgery. Traditional invasive lumbar fusion typically takes several hours, requires a few days hospital stay and weeks to months of rehabilitation.

In contrast, the MILD procedure typically takes less than 2 hours and the patients are usually discharged after 2-3 hours. Most patients have a 75% reduction in their pain.

How do you know if your back pain is due to spinal stenosis? Only a physician can diagnosis this condition, however, patients most commonly present with lower back pain that radiates into one or both legs. The pain is usually worse with walking and relieved by either sitting down or leaning forward (such as on a shopping cart).

Call us for more information today at (918) 260-9322.

2 comments:

rlray said...

I am a 70 year old male with severe osteoporosis of the lower spine and 5 severely damaged discs. I am controlling pain with Ibuprofin but am wondering if I should have discs surgically repaired. Any thoughts?

James Webb, MD said...

Osteoporosis typically affects the bone, whereas degenerative disc disease typically affects the intervertebral discs.

For severe disc narrowing, often people 60 and older do extremely well with a lumbar epidural steroid injection. If the pain is due to spinal stenosis, then the MILD procedure can help.

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