tethered cord operated

[jun]

My wife successfully operated in her spinal(tethered cord syndromes)but until  now she did not control or not normal her urine and bowel. is there any hope to back to normal her urine and bowel problem? pls. help and advice me .Thanks and God bless you all.

[Nyckki]

A related discussion, How successful is surgery for tethered cord syndrome in adults was started.

[CCF-Neuro-M.D.-JT]

One study reports that this is dependent on a number of factors, with the main ones being:
1) how long she had the problems with her bowel and bladder, if it's less than 5 years then there's a good chance it will come back

2)extent of untethering, meaning if it was complete or partial untethering (complete is better)

Surgery has been to shown to be helpful in both adults and children. In one pediatric studym 4/25 kids had return of bladder/bowel function and in an adult study 44% had improvement in their bowel and bladder function at 6 months. One hopeful bit of news is that at 8 years after surgery, 85% were in stable neurological condition. Talk to the surgeons and find out exactly how the surgery went, ask if it was partial or complete and discuss what the surgeon's own personal success rate is with tethered cord syndrome and bowel/bladder function. She should start to show some improvement within 6 months. GOod luck.

[Annika]

Correction - the keyword is actually "tethered spinal cord," not "tethered cord syndrome." Sorry about that.

I hope it's okay to pass on references to other websites one has found helpful as a patient.  I'm not involved in running this group, but simply have found it to be a good meeting-place to share information about this disorder.  If there's a proscription against posting other links on this site, I hope someone will let me know so I don't unwittingly violate a rule.

Thanks,
Annika

[Annika]

An excellent patient-run online support group for tethered cord syndrome can be found through yahoo groups (www. groups.yahoo.com).  Simply type in the words "tethered cord syndrome" on this page, and you should find the registration page for the support group.  This group is mostly focused on patients who were diagnosed with this problem as adults, and most have had surgery.  I have a tethered cord myself, as a result of scarring from a spinal tumor removal.

Good luck,
Annika