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For patients with spinal stenosis, operative treatment is associated with lower risk of death and lower costs over two years, compared with nonoperative treatment, suggests a study. Patients with spinal stenosis experience narrowing of the spinal canal and compression of spinal nerves, causing back pain, leg pain, and other symptoms. In some patients, stenosis is related to degenerative spondylolisthesis, referring to "slipped" vertebrae often resulting from spinal degeneration. Operative treatment of spinal stenosis can include the use of a laminectomy to decompress the spinal canal, a spinal fusion to stabilize the spine, or a combination of both. Nonoperative treatment can...

WASHINGTON -- People who suffer from a spinal problem that can cause back and leg pain have an alternative to difficult surgery with a newly approved device that requires a much less invasive procedure to implant. The Food and Drug Administration authorized use of the "X-stop" - a thumb of titanium on a mount that fits to a vertebra in the lower back - to reduces pain from lumbar spinal stenosis. The FDA's approval was announced Tuesday by the St. Mary's Spine Center in San Francisco, which developed the device. The condition is the most common cause of back surgery...