Today I took my independent study day that to replace Friday. I read two packets given to me by the neurosurgeon from a website called Up to Date which is a online database used and updated by doctors and other people relevant in the health care system. It basically keep up to date with the latest discoveries and standards in medicine. He had me read one on spinal stenosis and the other on evidence-based medicine. I also did some independent research on knee replacements because this Thursday the orthopedic surgeon is preforming that procedure. I am not a hundred percent yet that I will be able to observe but am very hopeful. I work a little on my project but my computer broke and is making the process very slow. Hopefully it should return any day now.
Spinal stenosis most basically put is the narrowing of the spine. It is seen most commonly in older people and is cause by degeneration of the bone and/or the discs. It is also commonly cause by arthritis. As the bone starts to degenerate the bodies response is to grow more bone to reduce the pressure, however this can cause the canal where the nerve exits to narrow and cause pain as well as numbness and weakness. It is also when the spinal canal narrows compressing the spinal cord as seen is the picture below. I think that the most probable cause of shrinking, to go back to the title, would be degeneration of the disc in between the vertebrae. As I said before, I'm not good with titles.
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