Understanding Your Treatment Options for Lumbar Spinal Stenosis

Americans are no strangers to low back pain — 80% of the population has experienced it at some point in their lives. But if you’re dealing with chronic and progressive pain at the hands of lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS), your problem is far from fleeting. While management measures can relieve your immediate discomfort, long-term solutions were few and far between — until now.

At Comprehensive Pain Management, under the experienced guidance of Dr. Do Chan, our mission is to restore pain-free movement to our patients in Attleboro and Franklin, Massachusetts, as well as South Kingstown and Warwick, Rhode Island. To that end, we stay abreast of the latest techniques that provide sustainable results, and we’re excited about one in particular — the mild® procedure. Using this innovative solution, we’re fighting back against LSS, helping you get back on your feet and living life to the fullest again.

Here’s a quick look at LSS and how mild is quickly becoming the treatment option of choice.

Lumbar spinal stenosis 101

LSS affects approximately two million people in the United States. It’s a condition in which the spinal canal in your low back narrows. This narrowing irritates the nerve roots along your spinal canal and can create localized problems with pain, as well as additional pain, tingling, and numbness that can radiate down your lower extremities.

The onset of LSS usually occurs after the age of 50 and can be found in increasing prevalence after the age of 60, affecting 10-15% of this population.

LSS can form for many reasons, chiefly:

Thickening ligaments around your spinal canal
Bone spurs or excess bone
Bulging discs

LSS is typically progressive, and this narrowing develops over time, placing increasing pressure on your nerves.

Traditionally, the plan of attack when it came to LSS was managing the symptoms (pain) through injections and medications. But these treatments, while effective, don’t address the underlying problem and only provide a temporary solution.

Enter mild

Using the mild procedure, we make a very small incision in your lower back (about the diameter of a drinking straw), and remove the bones and ligaments that are compressing your nerves. To do this, we use specialized instruments and an imaging machine that allows us to view your spinal canal, ensuring that we remove the tissue that’s responsible for the narrowing in this already-small space.

The entire in-office procedure takes about an hour, and we typically only use local anesthesia. Once we’re done, you’re free to go home the same day, and you’ll be able to resume lighter activities after 2-3 days. Since the incision is so small, we don’t need to place any sutures, which greatly speeds up your recovery time.

The mild procedure has a very low risk of complications, but rest assured, we give you full aftercare instructions, and we’re here to answer any questions you may have during your brief recovery.

Success by the numbers

Since its introduction, 20,000 patients have undergone the mild procedure, and studies show that 79% of patients experience a significant reduction in pain and an increase in mobility.

Breaking the success down even further, clinical data have demonstrated a seven times increase in standing time and a 16 times increase in walking distance — numbers that are music to anyone’s ears who’s suffering from LSS.

If you’d like to join the ranks of LSS sufferers who’ve found relief through mild, please give us a call at one of our four locations. Please note that mild is covered by Medicare nationwide.