Did you know

[oceanna]

Did you know that using a foreign object to hold up cerebellum during chiari surgery is dangerous? My surgeon figured out that using anything but your own tissue can cause serious problems after surgery. Our bodies may reject the patches or plates. Rejection of these materials can cause a lot problems and pain. My surgeon only uses the tissue that he harvests from our own body. When he does chiari decompression surgery he does a 2 part surgery. Open the area at base of skull to decompress the brain while that is still open he opens up another area just above the first and harvest the white skin material that is attached to skull and then uses that harvested material for the patch. No rejection issues and no repeated surgeries. The only surgeon doing this is at the University of Washington Dr. Richard Ellenbogen. He is on the cutting edge of chiari surgeons. DO NOT LET YOUR SURGEON PUT A FOREIGN OBJECT IN YOU DURING CHIARI SURGERY!!

[deadmemory]

Dr. Ellenbogen at Harborview just did my surgery too. He was amazing, and kind.. in the recovery he came to check on me and I asked him for a hug, which he did very gently. Later in the ICU, the nurse said that I MADE his day. I am recovering beautifully as well. We are both very lucky to have had Dr. E be our surgeon.

[selmaS]

  I am doing ok...I do have other issues that need to be addressed such as EDS and TC and a bulging disk  and these cause me issues, but my chiari symptoms I had pre op are gone....so I am happy.

This is one thing I do try and say, over and over, to make sure u have a true chiari specialist and that u had testing for all related issues as it can affect how u feel and heal post op.

[oceanna]

I had my Chiari surgery at Haborveiw in Seattle Washington. the surgeon was Dr, Ellenbogen. He is an amazing surgeon and human being. It has 18 months and the surgery was a success. Recovery was long and hard it took me about 8 months to feel good. Im glad they used your own tissue. Some surgeons are not doing the surgery correctly. There are many surgeons that are doing this surgery that dont have any idea what they are doing. How are you feeling?

[actressmouse]

I will be having surgery at TCI and they will be harvesting my own tissue for the patch.  I am totally in favor of this as I have a Connective Tissue Disorder as well, so I don't want to take a chance of rejection of the patch.  True, I'll have a longer zipper, but that's okay!!

[deadmemory]

I just wanted to say Dr. Ellenbogen did my chiari decompression. He is amazing

[selmaS]

  Hi...I too had my pericardium harvested for my dura patch and it is due to many with chiari also have ehlers-danlos putting us at a higher risk of rejection of foreign matter.

  The Drs at TCI also do this procedure...my zipper is longer then most as a result of the harvesting....

  May I ask when u had ur surgery?

     "selma"

[Rylanesmom]

Dr Oro also harvests the patch.  That is why I have 2 scars.  There are other chiari Drs that do harvest the patch.