• Katsutaka Yamada, Yoichi Aota, Takayuki Higashi, Ko Ishida, Takanori Nimura, Tomoyuki Konno, and Tomoyuki Saito.
• Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Yokohama City University, Fukuura 3-9, Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama City, Kanagawa, 236-0004, Japan, katsutaka@af.em-net.ne.jp.
• Eur Spine J. 2014 Mar 1;23(3):504-7.

PurposeLumbar intra-spinal canal stenosis is characterized by leg pain that intensifies during walking and intermittent claudication, while leg pain at rest is a characteristic neurological symptom of lumbar disc herniation. Until now, a correlation between leg pain at rest and symptomatic foraminal stenosis has not been reported. This is a prospective and comparative study of unilateral leg pain from L5 nerve root compression due to spinal canal stenosis to determine clinical characteristics of lumbar foraminal stenosis.MethodsClinical and neurological findings were compared among 38 patients receiving L5-S1 transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion for L5-S1 foraminal stenosis (FS group) and 60 patients receiving L4-5 decompression or/and fusion for L4-5 intra-spinal canal stenosis (CS group).ResultsThe only significant difference between the FS and CS groups in demographic clinical data was leg pain at rest. The prevalence of leg pain was significantly higher in the FS group compared to the CS group (76 vs. 35%). The visual analogue scale for leg pain at rest was also significantly higher in the FS group than in the CS group (6.6 ± 3.1 vs. 1.3 ± 1.9).ConclusionsLeg pain at rest is characteristic of L5-S1 foraminal stenosis.

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