Symptoms of lumbar stenosis
What are the clinical features of lumbar stenosis?
- 1. Presence of intermittent neurogenic claudication (pseudoclaudication).
- 2. Pain is provoked by walking or standing and is relieved with rest (lying, sitting, or flexing).
- 3. Symptoms are usually bilateral but may be asymmetric.
- 4. Often there is no objective sensory loss.
- 5. Leg weakness and urinary incontinence are seldom present.
- 6. Unlike vascular claudication, pain may persist if the patient stops walking without flexing the spine.
Most patients are age 50 years and older and have had symptoms referable to lumbar spinal stenosis for more than 1 year.
Neurogenic intermittent claudication or pseudoclaudication is the most common presenting and constant symptom in lumbar spinal stenosis.
Symptoms are usually bilateral, with one leg more involved than the other, but they may be unilateral.
The whole lower extremity is generally affected.
Pain is provoked by walking and, in many patients, merely by standing.
It is typically dull in character and is quickly relieved by sitting or leaning forward. In some patients, the pain is accompanied by numbness of the affected leg and the feeling that it “may give out” on them.
