Introduction: Lumbar spinal stenosis is a common pathology in older adults. It causes pain in the lumbar spine and legs and impairs functional ability in individuals. Due to the lack of evidence in favour of the nonsurgical treatment, many patients decide for surgery, which is identified as potential risk in older adults. Objective: The objective of the diploma thesis was to review the existing literature on this topic and to identify efficacy of physiotherapeutic treatment of patients with lumbar spinal stenosis. Methods: English literature published between 2011 and 2020 was searched using keywords were: lumbar spinal stenosis, physiotherapy, nonsurgical treatment, management in older adults. The following databases were used: PEDro, CINAHL, ScienceDirect, PubMed and Web of Science. Results: We got 78 results. The analysis was made based on six studies. Three types of nonsurgical treatment were compared among each other in two studies: medical treatment, group exercise and manual therapy/individual therapy in the first study and treatment with medication, therapeutic exercises and acupuncture in the second one. In other studies, the efficacy of supervised physiotherapy was compared with epidural injections of steroids, surgery and individual exercise. Results of the analysis showed that different physiotherapeutic treatments lead to pain reduction and less body restraints, to reduced level of symptoms and to better psychological and body functions. Discussion and conclusion: Based on the obtained results, it could be concluded that studies do not provide a precise answer to which nonsurgical treatment is the most optimal for this condition. All the above-mentioned physiotherapeutic treatments seem to be a rational option for patients who do not decide for surgery. It would be valuable for future research to monitor long-term effects of the chosen physiotherapeutic treatments and to include even more patients in the studies.
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