A NONSURGICAL TREATMENT APPROACH FOR PATIENTS WITH LUMBAR SPINAL STENOSIS

The purpose of this case report is to describe a physical therapy appr oach to the evaluation, treatment, and outcome assessment of two patie nts diagnosed with lumbar spinal stenosis. Evaluation consisted of ass essment of neurological status, spinal range of motion, and lower-extr emity muscle force production and flexibility; administration of the M odified Oswestry Low Back Pain Questionnaire and the Roland-Morris Dis ability Questionnaire; assessment of pain using a visual analog scale; and performance of a two-stage treadmill test. The treatment program was designed to treat the impairments, and harness-supported treadmill ambulation (unloading) was used to address the limitation in ambulati on identified by the treadmill test. Outcome assessment included measu ring changes in the status of the impairments and assessing responses to the disability questionnaires and performance of the two-stage trea dmill test. Improvements were noted on all outcome measures for both p atients after 6 weeks of physical therapy and at the 4 week follow-up examination. Larger case series and randomized trials with long-term f ollow-ups are recommended.