Running Doc: Explaining spinal stenosis, which has Mets captain David Wright on the disabled list (Daily News)
David Wright has been sidelined since April with spinal stenosis
Dear Running Doc:
I am a New York Mets fan. I just read that David Wright has spinal stenosis and back pain. I hope you know something about backs. Is this career ending or does he need surgery? Could there be something else to help him?
— Johnny R. Flushing, NY.
Thank you, Johnny for the question. Yes, I do know something about back pain and have made it a subspecialty to my practice of sports medicine. Back when I was a fellow working with Dr. Allan Levy of the New York Giants, he asked me to see the patients with back pain coming into his office. At that time all back pain was treated with the same set of exercises. It was like shooting buckshot at a barn and hoping to hit a bull's-eye. I applied sports medicine principles of finding an exact diagnosis and developing specific treatment plans depending on the diagnosis.
The spinal canal is the place where the spinal cord runs down your back and spinal nerves exitat each level of vertebra. When the canal is congenitally small it is called spinal stenosis. Yo...
