arnold chiari post op

I had a arnold chiari decompression a little more than two years ago, and for the last few months I have been getting the same headaches nausea, and numbness I had before the surgery. Has this happened to anyone else?

[Godofredo MD]

Hi.

What type of Arnold-Chiari malformation did you have? I am asking this because certain types of this disorder respond better than others.

Also, according to some literature, patients most likely to benefit from surgery are those whose neurological signs, such as nystagmus and absent gag reflex, and demonstrably abnormal CSF flow in the hindbrain as visualized on cine MRI (Sridharan, S Krishnaney, A; Management of Chiari Malformation and Fibromyalgia spineuniverse.com 2007; McGirt MJ, Nimjee SM, Fuchs HE, et al; Relationship of cine phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging with outcome after decompression for Chiari I malformations. Neurosurgery. 2006 Jul;59(1):140-6; discussion 140-6).

The prognosis of patients who are surgically treated is variable and would depend on the symptoms at the initial presentation and also the spinal cord's potential for recovery.

Do you suffer from scoliosis or syringomyelia? Adult patients with these conditions are more prone to developing complications and their response to surgical decompression is poorer than others.

You should talk about this with your surgeon to see if these symptoms are still related to your initial condition or are caused by other disorders.

Hope this helps.