Degenerative changes in the lumbar spine can lead to progressive narrowing of the spinal canal and pressure on the lumbosacral nerve roots in the cauda equina. Symptoms include back pain, neurogenic claudication (leg pains that worsen after walking and settle with rest), balance disturbances, weakness and sphincter dysfunction.
If you have clinical suspicion of Cauda Equina Syndrome please vist the page
Please refer to MSKI for patients with longstanding symptoms - patients will be seen and assessed by an ESP and referred to a spinal surgeon if this is required / appropriate. Please note the GIRFT guidance for patients with CES symptoms present for >14 days that require an urgent MSKi referral and imaging.
Efforts are made to ensure the accuracy and agreement of these guidelines, including any content uploaded, referred to or linked to from the system. However, BNSSG ICB cannot guarantee this. This guidance does not override the individual responsibility of healthcare professionals to make decisions appropriate to the circumstances of the individual patient, in consultation with the patient and/or guardian or carer, in accordance with the mental capacity act, and informed by the summary of product characteristics of any drugs they are considering. Practitioners are required to perform their duties in accordance with the law and their regulators and nothing in this guidance should be interpreted in a way that would be inconsistent with compliance with those duties.
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