Conservative Care vs. Surgery for Stenosis

A recent research review investigated the effectiveness of different types of surgery compared with different types of non-surgical interventions in adults with symptomatic lumbar spinal stenosis—a condition that is often debilitating and associated with degeneration of the spine. The investigators found both surgical and non-surgical treatment approaches produced similar outcomes; however, the rate of side effects ranged from 10% to 24% in surgical cases, while the researchers found no reported side effects for any of the conservative treatments they reviewed in the study. They recommend further high-quality research to compare surgical versus conservative care in the management of lumbar spinal stenosis.
The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, January 2016