There is actually very little in the literature about lumbar stenosis, about the prevalence of lumbar stenosis, about the epidemiology of it. One of the things that is clear is that the frequency of surgical intervention to treat stenosis has increased – I think it is about six-fold in the last 15 years. Various people have various theories as to why this is:

A) because people are living longer; B) because there are more spinal surgeons around here if people choose be operated on. There are many, many theories about this but it certainly is true that the rate of surgical intervention for this condition is increasing very much. It is a very expensive operation.

The one thing that there is a little data about is anterolisthesis which is vertebral slipping and that it is five times more common in women than men and 2-4 times more common in African-Americans than whites. It is said to be more prevalent in diabetics and women who are oophorectomized.