Hi-
My 15-year old son has been recently diagnosed with chiari I and syringomyelia. He is not having any neurological symptoms other than bad headaches periodically (which could be totally unrelated). His syringomyelia is however pretty large from what the doctors are telling us.....9 mm in width and he has developed scoliosis, which actually led to the chiari diagnosis. Doctors are suggesting surgery (without duraplasty) because of the size of the spinal cyst. I have done a lot of reading on the subject and I actually feel okay with the surgery itself, however, I have been a little disturbed by many things that I have read about people suffering from things such as occipital neuralgia and memory loss after having the surgery. I do not want to put off surgery if the cyst is putting him in danger for future neurological issues, but do not want to expose him to these dreadful post-operative possibilities either.....especially since he is pretty much asymptomatic right now (excluding the scoliosis). We will be seeing another neurosurgeon this week for a second opinion and I have jotted down many questions for him, but I would really like to get opinions from people who have had the surgery. Thanks so much. I appreciate any feedback I can get.