Syringomyelia ?

I recently went to the neurologist for some headaches I have been having and to have some Syrinx looked at. When the syrinx were found over a year ago the Neuro-seurgon idenified 8 syrinx. Since they were idenified we moved from NY to NC. The neurologist in NC says that the syrinx as of an MRI I had done in August look like they have grown. He sugested having a complete MRI from the head all the bottom of my spine and consult a neuro- surgeon about having a shunt placed. What exactly is that and how does it work?

[selmaS]

Hi welcome to the forum.
We have a Chiari forum here where we also discuss syringomylia (syrinx).

A syrinx is a cyst filled cavity that when it grows too large can impeed the nerves from sending and recieveing signals.The shunt acts like a straw to drain the fluid out of the cysts and relieve any pressure they were causing.

I will suggest that u find a dr that specializes in chiari and syringomyelia.There is The Chiari Institute in NY.I am not familiar with drs in NC, but in the chiari forum we do have a list of drs the members have gone to and were happy with.
For more info on syringomyelia see our Health Pages here on MedHelp.

I invite u to join the chiari forum.

selmaS
Chiari Community Leader