Patients with lumbar spinal stenosis may feel pain, weakness, or numbness in the legs, calves or buttocks. However, the most common sign of lumbar stenosis is that people are mostly comfortable if they are sitting, but pain increases and travels down the legs when they walk.

Certain positions can alleviate the symptoms of lumbar stenosis by increasing the amount of space available for the nerves. These positions usually involve flexion of the lumbar spine and bending forward. Sitting will usually cause the pain to recede.

More severe symptoms of the lumbar spinal stenosis include numbness, paresthesias and weakness in the legs. However, the severity of the symptoms of spinal stenosis depends on the several major factors, including the original width of the spinal canal and the susceptibility of the nerves involved.

Conservative treatment for lumbar spinal stenosis focuses on relieving or coping with the symptoms of pain and relieving the pressure from the nerves, and usually include:

• Exercises - to strength back and abdominal muscles, and to restore spinal flexibility;
• Medications - help to relieve the pain and inflammation;
• Physiotherapy - helps to relive the pain syndrome and modelates activities;
• Manipulative treatment - helps to relieve the pressure on the nerve route;

 If non-surgical measures do not offer adequate relief, the surgery may be necessary. The surgical option to treat lumbar spinal stenosis is a decompression, which refers to the relief the nerves by removing a portion of the enlarged facet joint prevents the nerve pinching when the patient stands up.