4 Telltale Signs of Spinal Stenosis | Philadelphia, PA | Limerick, PA

everybody dr. Charlie Johnson physical therapist in the past video I shared with you how I was able to educate a patient on what spinal stenosis was and help her understand why she was feeling leg pain I also talked about the two common types that you should know about of spinal stenosis so again spinal stenosis is just a narrowing of the pathways where the nerves travel okay which can causes pain numbness tingling down both or one legs if depending on where the stenosis occurs okay today I want to review the four telltale signs of spinal stenosis number one okay pain standing and walking we know that when the spine is upright we're in a position of what we call extension so it's kind of in this arch position it actually decreases the space where the nerves travel just naturally okay and if you will spinal stenosis it can cause it to the point where actually causes compression of these nerves okay so people spinal stenosis usually have pain with standing or walking all right the other thing we see in people who have spinal stenosis is that sometimes I'll sometimes they have actually no back pain at all though they can't have back pain but they actually complain of leg pain that is actually worse than their back pain so they have a pretty severe leg pain when again they stand or they walk all right the third one I call this the positive shopping cart sign meaning if you've ever been in the grocery store or out somewhere and you see somebody kind of stooping over a grocery cart I call it a positive shopping cart sign why because again we talked about what happens to the central canal and the pathways where the nerves travel when you're standing or walking they narrow right so if you are if you're walking around you get leg pain okay or back pain and the leg pain specifically goes away when you lean on a shopping cart so you bend the spine forward therefore creating more space for the nerves to travel okay you actually may feel alleviation of your leg pain so it's a little test that you can do if you're walking and you feel your leg pain coming on and you think you may have spinal stenosis walk walk walk and then lean on a shopping cart okay and walk forward like that and then just like a switch stand back on up and you might notice your leg pain comes back okay same thing you can do it on a treadmill you can walk walk walk upright oh I'm getting light pain okay lean forward a little bit or support yourself as you've been this fine forward a little bit and you might notice that your leg pain gets a little bit better again because when your arch or your spine is upright it causes the spaces in the spine to narrow where the nerves travel it causes compression of the nerves when you bend the spine forward you open up or get more room for the nerves travel and therefore you relieve compression okay so a positive shopping cart sign and finally if you have all these things and then you have absolutely no leg pain when you sit that is yet another telltale sign that you may have spun stenosis so hopefully these four telltale signs are helpful if you haven't checked out my video on the two most common types of spinal stenosis and I recommend you check that out or if you just have questions comment below or like and send me a direct message if you'd like as well Charlie Johnson DPT at gmail.com hope this is helpful thanks

Channel: Dr. Charlie Johnson, PT

Views: 38,239

Keywords: spinal stenosis, stenosis, nerve pain, lower back pain, low back pain, back pain, foot tingling, leg numbness, leg pain, leg pain with walking, pain with walking, physical therapy, spinal stenosis exercises, lumbar spinal stenosis, neurogenic claudication, claudication, pain with standing, pain goes away with sitting, phoenixville, trappe, collegeville, limerick, royersford, philadelphia, king of prussia

Id: OSaHnDPM_dI

Length: 3min 55sec (235 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 10 2016