Conservative and Surgical Treatment Improves Pain and Ankle-Brachial Index in Patients with Lumbar Spinal Stenosis

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Abstract

Purpose

The pathological mechanism of lumbar spinal stenosis is reduced blood flow in nerve roots and degeneration of nerve roots. Exercise and prostaglandin E1 is used for patients with peripheral arterial disease to increase capillary flow around the main artery and improve symptoms; however, the ankle-brachial index (ABI), an estimation of blood flow in the main artery in the leg, does not change after treatment. Lumbar spinal nerve roots contain somatosensory, somatomotor, and unmyelinated autonomic nerves. Improved blood flow by medication with prostaglandin E1 and decompression surgery in these spinal nerve roots may improve the function of nerve fibers innervating muscle, capillary, and main vessels in the lower leg, resulting in an increased ABI. The purpose of the study was to examine whether these treatments can improve ABI.

Materials and Methods

One hundred and seven patients who received conservative treatment such as exercise and medication (n=56) or surgical treatment (n=51) were included. Low back pain and leg pain scores, walking distance, and ABI were measured before treatment and after 3 months of conservative treatment alone or surgical treatment followed by conservative treatment.

Results

Low back pain, leg pain, and walking distance significantly improved after both treatments ( p<0.05). ABI significantly increased in each group ( p<0.05).

Conclusion

This is the first investigation of changes in ABI after treatment in patients with lumbar spinal stenosis. Improvement of the spinal nerve roots by medication and decompression surgery may improve the supply of blood flow to the lower leg in patients with lumbar spinal stenosis.

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Most cited references 19

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Surgery versus conservative treatment for symptomatic lumbar spinal stenosis: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials.

Adorjan Kovacs, Juan J. Valdez-Alarcón, Gerard Urrútia (2011)

Systematic review. To compare the effectiveness of surgery versus conservative treatment on pain, disability, and loss of quality of life caused by symptomatic lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS). LSS is the most common reason for spine surgery in persons older than 65 years in the United States. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing any form of conservative and surgical treatment were searched in CENTRAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and TripDatabase databases until July 2009, with no language restrictions. Additional data were requested from the authors of the original studies. The methodological quality of each study was assessed independently by two reviewers, following the criteria recommended by the Cochrane Back Review Group. Only data from randomized cohorts were extracted. A total of 739 citations were reviewed. Eleven publications corresponding to five RCTs were included. All five scored as high quality despite concerns deriving from heterogeneity of treatment, lack of blinding, and potential differences in the size of the placebo effect across groups. They included a total of 918 patients in whom conservative treatments had failed for 3 to 6 months, and included orthosis, rehabilitation, physical therapy, exercise, heat and cold, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, ultrasounds, analgesics, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and epidural steroids. Surgical treatments included the implantation of a specific type of interspinous device and decompressive surgery (with and without fusion, instrumented or not). In all the studies, surgery showed better results for pain, disability, and quality of life, although not for walking ability. Results of surgery were similar among patients with and without spondylolisthesis, and slightly better among those with neurogenic claudication than among those without it. The advantage of surgery was noticeable at 3 to 6 months and remained for up to 2 to 4 years, although at the end of that period differences tended to be smaller. In patients with symptomatic LSS, the implantation of a specific type of device or decompressive surgery, with or without fusion, is more effective than continued conservative treatment when the latter has failed for 3 to 6 months.

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Acupuncture Treatment for Low Back Pain and Lower Limb Symptoms—The Relation between Acupuncture or Electroacupuncture Stimulation and Sciatic Nerve Blood Flow

Motohiro Inoue, Hiroshi Kitakoji, Tadashi Yano … (2007)

To investigate the clinical efficacy of acupuncture treatment for lumbar spinal canal stenosis and herniated lumbar disc and to clarify the mechanisms in an animal experiment that evaluated acupuncture on sciatic nerve blood flow. In the clinical trial, patients with lumbar spinal canal stenosis or herniated lumbar disc were divided into three treatment groups; (i) Ex-B2 (at the disordered level), (ii) electrical acupuncture (EA) on the pudendal nerve and (iii) EA at the nerve root. Primary outcome measurements were pain and dysesthesia [evaluated with a visual analogue scale (VAS)] and continuous walking distance. In the animal study, sciatic nerve blood flow was measured with laser-Doppler flowmetry at, before and during three kinds of stimulation (manual acupuncture on lumber muscle, electrical stimulation on the pudendal nerve and electrical stimulation on the sciatic nerve) in anesthetized rats. For the clinical trial, approximately half of the patients who received Ex-B2 revealed amelioration of the symptoms. EA on the pudendal nerve was effective for the symptoms which had not improved by Ex-B2. Considerable immediate and sustained relief was observed in patients who received EA at the nerve root. For the animal study, increase in sciatic nerve blood flow was observed in 56.9% of the trial with lumber muscle acupuncture, 100% with pudendal nerve stimulation and 100% with sciatic nerve stimulation. Sciatic nerve stimulation sustained the increase longer than pudendal nerve stimulation. One mechanism of action of acupuncture and electrical acupuncture stimulation could be that, in addition to its influence on the pain inhibitory system, it participates in causing a transient change in sciatic nerve blood blow, including circulation to the cauda equine and nerve root.

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The efficacy of prostaglandin E1 derivative in patients with lumbar spinal stenosis.

Katsushi Takeshita, Atsushi Seichi, Ko Matsudaira … (2009)

Randomized controlled trial. To examine the effect of limaprost, an oral prostaglandin (PG) E1 derivative, on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in patients with symptomatic lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS), compared to etodolac, a NSAID. Limaprost, an oral PGE1 derivative, was developed in Japan to treat numerous ischemic symptoms of thromboangiitis obliterans (TAO) and LSS. Previous studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of limaprost in the symptoms in patients with LSS. However, the evidence for effect on patient-reported outcomes, such as patient's HRQOL or satisfaction, is limited. This study was conducted at 4 study sites in Japan. Briefly, inclusion criteria were: age between 50 and 85 years; presence of both neurogenic intermittent claudication (NIC) and cauda equina symptoms (at least presence of bilateral numbness in the lower limbs); and MRI-confirmed central stenosis with acquired degenerative LSS. Limaprost (15 microg/d) or etodolac (400 mg/d) was administered for 8 weeks. The primary outcome was Short Form (SF)-36, and the secondary outcomes were the verbal rating scale of low back pain and leg numbness, walking distance, subjective improvement, and satisfaction. A total of 79 participants were randomized (limaprost:etodolac = 39:40). Thirteen participants withdrew from the study (limaprost:etodolac = 5:8) and 66 completed the study (limaprost:etodolac = 34:32). Comparisons showed that limaprost resulted in significantly greater improvements in the SF-36 subscales of physical functioning, role physical, bodily pain, vitality, and mental health. Limaprost was also significantly better than etodolac for leg numbness, NIC distance, and subjective improvement and satisfaction. In the subgroup analysis stratified by symptom severity, limaprost seemed more effective for milder symptoms. No serious adverse effects were reported in either treatment group. In this study, limaprost was found to be efficacious on most outcome measures, such as HRQOL, symptoms and subjective satisfaction, in LSS patents with cauda equina symptoms.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Yonsei Med J

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Yonsei Med. J

Journal ID (publisher-id): YMJ

Title: Yonsei Medical Journal

Publisher: Yonsei University College of Medicine

ISSN (Print): 0513-5796

ISSN (Electronic): 1976-2437

Publication date (Print): 01 July 2013

Publication date (Electronic): 14 May 2013

Volume: 54

Issue: 4

Pages: 999-1005

Affiliations

Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan.

Author notes

Corresponding author: Dr. Seiji Ohtori, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuo-ku, Chiba 260-8670, Japan. Tel: 81-43-226-2117, Fax: 81-43-226-2116, sohtori@ 123456faculty.chiba-u.jp

Article

DOI: 10.3349/ymj.2013.54.4.999

PMC ID: 3663234

PubMed ID: 23709437

SO-VID: e21ebaf3-3765-43db-8563-76cd3b494125

License:

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

History

Date received : 20 July 2012

Date revision received : 13 September 2012

Date accepted : 17 September 2012

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Conservative and Surgical Treatment Improves Pain and Ankle-Brachial Index in Patients with Lumbar Spinal Stenosis

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Karger: Gastroenterology

Most cited references 19

Surgery versus conservative treatment for symptomatic lumbar spinal stenosis: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials.

Acupuncture Treatment for Low Back Pain and Lower Limb Symptoms—The Relation between Acupuncture or Electroacupuncture Stimulation and Sciatic Nerve Blood Flow

The efficacy of prostaglandin E1 derivative in patients with lumbar spinal stenosis.

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