The X-STOP, which stands for “Interspinous Process Decompression System”, is a titanium implant that is inserted into the back at the lumbar spine segment that has symptomatic spinal stenosis (narrowing of the boney canal which can cause crowding of the nerve roots).
The X-STOP implant is placed between the spinous processes in the back of the lumbar level (one or two levels) where the lumbar stenosis is present. Spinous processes are the thin projections from the back of the spinal bones to which muscle and ligaments are attached – they can usually be felt just under the skin as the boney protrusions running down the back of the spine.
