Spinal canal stenosis is one of the most frequent spinal pathologies, causing intense pain in the back (lumbar area) and legs, especially when standing up and walking, forcing to stop and sit down.
The most frequent cause is lumbar vertebral arthrosis, so that, although it is a benign disease, it cannot be cured and will evolve slowly, making it increasingly difficult to walk.
The characteristic symptom is pain in the back and, above all, in the legs when walking, which causes a progressive decrease in the patient’s quality of life. Relief is achieved when stopping and sitting down, but reappears when starting to walk again (claudication).
Although leg pain usually appears progressively, it can sometimes appear acutely and suddenly. In some patients, the pain is accompanied by numbness of the legs, and sometimes even a sensation of loss of strength.
Depending on the time of onset and the intensity of the symptoms, treatment may range from physical exercise and epidural infiltrations to surgical intervention to eliminate the compression of the nerves caused by the stenosis. However, the aggressiveness of the intervention and the anesthetic risk sometimes do not allow this therapy.
To reduce pain, the alternative to surgery are infiltrations in the spine, usually performed by administering cortisone derivatives. Therefore, there is sometimes the possibility of causing undesirable side effects, especially in elderly, diabetic or hypertensive patients.
An alternative treatment to epidural infiltrations with corticosteroids is the administration of ozone. Ozone is a gas with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties that has proven its efficacy for many years in osteoarthritis of joints (knee, hip, shoulder, hands…), in muscular paravertebral pain and in lumbago and sciatica due to herniated or protruded discs.
Ozone infiltration in the treatment of lumbar canal stenosis is achieving results of efficacy similar to those obtained with the use of cortisone, but without its side effects.
The treatment consists of two infiltrations performed on an outpatient basis at an interval of 7-15 days between them. Occasionally, a third one is necessary to increase the relief and prolong its duration.
The administration technique is through an epidural puncture performed with the usual standards of asepsis, in a suitable space for it, in the same facilities of the office.
After lying for 20-30 minutes on the same stretcher where the procedure is performed, the patient is discharged. If the treatment is effective, it will probably have to be repeated after 4-6 months.
Ozone infiltration may not always be effective, as is the case with all osteoarthritis treatments, but the lack of better alternatives places it in the first line of non-surgical treatment for the management of disabling pain in patients with canal stenosis.