Key Takeaways
- Understanding spinal stenosis fall prevention seniors is important for seniors and their caregivers.
- Symptoms often get worse slowly over time.
- During a physical exam, your health care provider will try to find the location of the pain and learn how it affects your movement.
- Your provider and other health professionals will help you manage your pain and keep you as active as possible.
- Many people with spinal stenosis are able to be active with the condition, although they may need to make some changes in their activities or work.
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What Are the Common Causes and Risk Factors?
Understanding spinal stenosis fall prevention seniors is important for seniors and their caregivers. spinal stenosis usually occurs as a person ages, however, some people are born with less space for their spinal cord.
- The spinal disks become drier and start to bulge and can rupture.
- The bones and ligaments of the spine thicken or grow larger. This is caused by arthritis or long-term swelling.
Spinal stenosis may also be caused by:
-
Arthritis
of the spine, usually in middle-aged or older people
-
Bone diseases, such as
Paget disease
- Defect or growth in the spine that was present from birth
- Narrow spinal canal that the person was born with
-
Herniated
or slipped disk, which often may have happened in the past
- Injury that causes pressure on the nerve roots or the spinal cord
-
Tumors
in the spine
- Fracture or injury of a spinal bone
What Are the Symptoms and Warning Signs?
Symptoms often get worse slowly over time. Most often, symptoms will be on one side of the body, but may involve both legs.
Symptoms include:
-
Numbness
, cramping, or pain in the back, buttocks, thighs, or calves, or in the neck, shoulders, or arms
-
Weakness
of part of a leg or arm
Symptoms are more likely to be present or get worse when you stand or walk. They often lessen or disappear when you sit down or lean forward. Most people with spinal stenosis cannot walk for a long period without having significant pain.
More serious symptoms include:
- Difficulty or poor balance when walking
- Problems controlling urine or bowel movements
📖 What Are Exams and Tests?
What Are Exams and Tests?
During a physical exam, your health care provider will try to find the location of the pain and learn how it affects your movement. You will be asked to:
- Sit, stand, and walk. While you walk, your provider may ask you to try walking on your toes and then your heels.
- Bend forward, backward, and sideways. Your pain may worsen with these movements.
- Lift your legs straight up while lying down. If the pain is worse when you do this, you may have sciatica, especially if you also feel numbness or tingling in one of your legs.
Your provider will also move your legs in different positions, including bending and straightening your knees. This is to check your strength and ability to move.
To test nerve function, your provider will use a rubber hammer to check your reflexes. To test how well your nerves sense feeling, your provider will touch your legs in many places with a pin, cotton swab, or feather. To check your balance, your provider will ask you to close your eyes while standing and keeping your feet together.
A brain and nervous system (neurologic) exam helps confirm leg weakness and
loss of sensation
in the legs. You may have the following tests:
-
Spinal MRI
or
spinal CT
scan
-
X-ray of the spine
-
Electromyography (EMG)
📖 How Is It Treated?
How Is It Treated?
Your provider and other health professionals will help you manage your pain and keep you as active as possible.
- Your provider may refer you for physical therapy. The physical therapist will teach you stretches and exercises that make your back muscles stronger.
-
You may also see a
chiropractor
, a massage therapist, and someone who performs acupuncture. Sometimes, a few visits will help your back or neck pain.
- Cold packs and heat therapy may help your pain during flare-ups.
Treatments for back pain caused by spinal stenosis include:
-
Medicines to help relieve back pain
.
-
A type of talk therapy called
cognitive behavioral therapy
to help you better understand your pain and teach you how to manage back pain.
- An epidural spinal injection which involves injecting medicine directly into the space around your spinal nerves or spinal cord.
Spinal stenosis symptoms often become worse over time, but this may happen slowly. If the pain does not respond to these treatments, or you lose movement or feeling, you may need surgery.
- Surgery is done to relieve pressure on the nerves or spinal cord.
- You and your provider can decide when you need to have surgery for these symptoms.
Surgery may include
removing a bulging disk
,
removing part of the vertebra bone
, or
widening the canal and openings where your spinal nerves are located
.
During some spinal surgeries, the surgeon will remove some bone to create more room for your spinal nerves or spinal column. The surgeon will then fuse some of the spine bones to make your spine more stable. But this will make your back more stiff and may cause arthritis in areas above or below your fused spine.
📖 What Is Outlook (Prognosis)?
What Is Outlook (Prognosis)?
Many people with spinal stenosis are able to be active with the condition, although they may need to make some changes in their activities or work.
Spine surgery will often partly or fully relieve symptoms in your legs or arms. It is hard to predict if you will improve and how much relief surgery will provide.
- People who had long-term back pain before their surgery are likely to have some pain after surgery.
- If you needed more than one type of back surgery, you may be more likely to have future problems.
- The area of the spinal column above and below a spinal fusion is more likely to be stressed and have problems and accelerated arthritis in the future. This may lead to more surgeries later.
In rare cases, injuries caused by pressure on the nerves are permanent, even if the pressure is relieved.
📖 When to Contact a Medical Professional?
When to Contact a Medical Professional?
Contact your provider if you have symptoms of spinal stenosis.
More serious symptoms that need prompt attention include:
- Difficulty or poor balance when walking
- Worsening numbness and weakness of your limb
- Problems controlling urine or bowel movements
- Problems urinating or having a bowel movement
Pseudo-claudication; Central spinal stenosis; Foraminal spinal stenosis; Degenerative spine disease; Back pain – spinal stenosis; Low back pain – stenosis; LBP – stenosis
📖 What Are Patient Instructions?
What Are Patient Instructions?
-
Spine surgery – discharge
-
Sciatic nerve
-
Spinal stenosis
-
Spinal stenosis
Bussières A, Cancelliere C, Ammendolia C, et al. Non-surgical interventions for lumbar spinal stenosis leading to neurogenic claudication: a clinical practice guideline.
J Pain
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pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33857615/
.
Gardocki RJ, Park AL. Degenerative disorders of the thoracic and lumbar spine. In: Azar FM, Beaty JH, eds.
Campbell’s Operative Orthopaedics
. 14th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2021:chap 39.
Issac Z, Sarno D. Lumbar spinal stenosis. In: Frontera WR, Silver JK, Rizzo TD Jr, eds.
Essentials of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
. 4th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2019:chap 50.
Katz JN, Zimmerman ZE, Mass H, Makhni MC. Diagnosis and management of lumbar spinal stenosis: a review.
JAMA
. 2022;327(17):1688-1699 PMID: 35503342
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35503342/
.
Updated by: C. Benjamin Ma, MD, Professor, Chief, Sports Medicine and Shoulder Service, UCSF Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, San Francisco, CA. Also reviewed by David C. Dugdale, MD, Medical Director, Brenda Conaway, Editorial Director, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team.
-
Spinal Stenosis
Frequently Asked Questions
Key Takeaways
What Are the Common Causes and Risk Factors?
What Are the Symptoms and Warning Signs?
Numbness
, cramping, or pain in the back, buttocks, thighs, or calves, or in the neck, shoulders, or arms
Weakness
of part of a leg or arm
Symptoms are more likely to be present or get worse when you stand or walk.
What Are Exams and Tests?
Sit, stand, and walk. While you walk, your provider may ask you to try walking on your toes and then your heels.
How Is It Treated?
About the Author: This article was researched and written by the SilverWell Hub editorial team. It was medically reviewed by Dr. Sarah Mitchell, MD, Geriatrics.
Sources: This article is adapted from MedlinePlus, a service of the National Library of Medicine.
Disclaimer: This information is for educational purposes only. See our full Medical Disclaimer.
Published: July 21, 2026 | Next review: January 2027
