Spinal stenosis rarely announces itself. It arrives as a shorter walk to the mailbox, a longer rest on a grocery store bench, a lean over the shopping cart that somehow makes the legs work again. At Remix Medical in Houston, our board-certified pain management physicians treat spinal stenosis with image-guided, non-surgical care aimed at the specific level of the spine causing your symptoms.
What is Spinal Stenosis?
Spinal stenosis is a narrowing of the space inside the spinal canal. As that space closes, pressure builds on the spinal cord and the nerve roots traveling through it, producing pain, numbness, tingling, and weakness in the limbs.
Some people carry a naturally narrow canal and never develop symptoms. Most cases are acquired, developing gradually as the structures surrounding the canal thicken, bulge, or shift inward with age.
Common Causes of Spinal Stenosis
1. Osteoarthritis and Bone Spurs
Arthritic change in the facet joints prompts the body to lay down new bone. These spurs encroach on the canal and reduce the room available to the nerves.
2. Herniated or Bulging Discs
As discs dry and lose height, their outer wall can tear or bulge backward into the canal, adding pressure and inflammation at that level.
3. Thickened Ligaments
The ligamentum flavum stiffens and thickens with age. It buckles inward, crowding the canal from behind.
4. Spondylolisthesis
One vertebra slips forward on the one below it, misaligning the canal and pinching the nerves at that segment.
5. Trauma
Fractures and dislocations can narrow the canal directly, or through the swelling and scar tissue that follow.
Symptoms of Spinal Stenosis
Symptoms depend on where the narrowing occurs.
Lumbar stenosis — the most common form — typically produces:
- Leg pain, cramping, or heaviness that worsens with standing and walking
- Relief on sitting, or on leaning forward over a cart or counter
- Numbness or tingling in the buttock, leg, or foot
- Weakness in the legs, or a sense that they may give out
Cervical stenosis more often produces:
- Numbness or tingling in the hands and arms
- Clumsiness with buttons, keys, or handwriting
- Balance and gait changes
- Neck pain and stiffness
How Remix Medical Can Help
Diagnosis starts with a physical exam and history, supported by MRI or CT imaging to identify the exact level and severity of narrowing. Imaging alone is not the diagnosis — a great many people have radiographic stenosis without symptoms — so we correlate what the scan shows with what you feel.
Our treatment options include:
- Epidural steroid injections to reduce inflammation around the compressed nerve
- Selective nerve root blocks to confirm and treat the symptomatic level
- Medication management to control pain and neuropathic symptoms
- Physical therapy referral for flexion-based conditioning and core stability
- Coordination with spine surgery when decompression is genuinely indicated
Because Remix Medical is a multispecialty group on one shared record, your pain physician, your primary care doctor, and your chiropractor see the same imaging and the same plan.
| Approach | What it involves |
|---|---|
| Posture + physical therapy | Flexion-based exercise and pacing ease the leg symptoms of stenosis |
| Medications | Nerve-pain agents and anti-inflammatories |
| Epidural steroid injections | Reduce inflammation around the compressed nerves |
| Decompression procedures | Minimally invasive or surgical decompression for disabling symptoms |
Relief from Spinal Stenosis at Remix Medical
A narrowing canal does not have to mean a narrowing life. Most patients improve substantially without surgery, particularly when treatment targets the correct level early.