The research (1)

In today’s post we would like to introduce the different findings, fruit of many years of research and medical practice, which constitute the foundation of our current diagnostic and treatment method. 

Dr. Royo Salvador’s research and studies started out in the seventies of the last century, in co-operation with the faculty of medicine of the Autonomous University Barcelona. Part of this research effort was concerned with diseases that are/were considered to be of unknown cause, as are idiopathic Syringomyelia, idiopathic Scoliosis and the Arnold Chiari I Syndrome (regarding the latter different ethiopathogenic theories were proposed at the time, we intent to discuss those further along on this blog) and its outcome are scientific findings that form the practical and theoretical basis to our Filum System®  method and our Institut’s activity in general.

Crucial findings:

Finding Nº 1 is the formulation of the concept of a new disease that expresses itself from the clinical viewpoint as the “Neuro-Cranio-Vertebral Syndrome”. It consists in uniting a group of diseases that affect the human Nervous System, the skull and the spine and that were considered to be of unknown cause. The research clarified that they actually share a same originator, which is identified as an abnormal tractioning of the coccygeal ligament, namely the Filum terminale. Therefore, the medical conditions in question can be considered to be expressions or components of one same disease.

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Finding Nº 2 consists in denoting the set of diseases included in the  Neuro-Cranio-Vertebral Syndrome as the “Filum Disease”. The name derives from the fact that they appear as a consequence of a congenitally abnormal filum terminal (tighter and thicker than normal) that cannot be detected on MRI. This is the case with the Arnold Chiari I Syndrome, idiopathic Scoliosis and Syringomyelia, Platybasia, Basilar Invagination, Retroflexion of the odontoid process, Kinking of the brain stem and nocturnal Enuresis.

Finding Nº 3 is the surgical outcome. It represents the elimination of the Filum Disease’s cause, which again implies that the progression of the involved diseases stops as well as a possible improvement with regards to reversible injuries.

Finding Nº 4 concerns the transformation of the surgical technique applied to the classical Sectioning of the filum terminale (SFT) into a minimally invasive procedure, carried out in adults using local anaesthesia and sedation, requiring a hospital stay of just 24 hours.

 

Finding Nº 5 reveals that the new surgical technique brings the mortality rate down to zero and has a very low morbidity rate, with a defining improvement of the Filum Disease patients’ quality of life.

Finding Nº 6 is a epidemiological discovery: the incidence of the diseases that coexist within the Filum Disease affect more than 10% of the world population.

Finding Nº 7 regards the guidelines: in order to obtain satisfactory results it does not suffice to apply the Sectioning of the Filum terminale only, additionally the “pre-, per- and post-“ operative guidelines that currently form part of the “FILUM SYSTEM®” have to be taken into account.

Finding Nº 8 points out the macroeconomic savings that the application of the discussed guidelines entails throughout the international health system.

Currently, our Institut’s professionals pursue investigation on different of the mentioned levels, following the strictest codes of practice and ethical standards of medical science, placing research side by side with clinical and surgical practice in order to avoid a gap between the theory and its practical application, as so often tends to be the case.