Info on Arnold-Chiari I, Idiopathic Syringomyelia, and Idiopathic Scoliosis: Causes and Insights

With the occasion of the release of the renewed Chiari & Scoliosis & Syringomyelia Foundation website, we would like to share this letter from the organization's president Dr. Miguel B. Royo-Salvador. My research quest initiated in the mid-seventies, it focused mainly on the cause of idiopathic Syringomyelia, followed by that of the Arnold-Chiari Syndrome Type I and later, on that of idiopathic Scoliosis. I reached the conclusion that the origin of these conditions, and that of many other associated ones, was an abnormal traction of the spinal cord brought about by a congenitally tenser than usual filum terminale.    I laid the theoretical foundations for a new treatment for these pathologies by means of the surgical sectioning of the Filum Terminale with my doctoral thesis “Contribution to the Etiology of Syringomyelia” (1992). The outcome was the constitution of the health method Filum System ® , a protocolised system designed for the diagnosis and ...

C. Merló (left) and Chiari patient E. Tarquini (right) French patient Emmanuelle Tarquini is on an important date in March, the “Women’s Month”. On the morning of the 19 th , she and her teammate, Cécilia Merló, left from harbour of Barcelona for Morocco, where they are taking part in the 27 th edition of the Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles , the only off-road competition worldwide exclusively for female competitors. In order to participate, Tarquini has had to face a much bigger challenge than riding in a 4×4 jeep for 2500 kilometres through the Moroccan desert. Her great test has been to overcome the difficulties caused by the Arnold-Chiari I Syndrome, that was bringing about insufferable headaches, also neck pain and paresthesias in her right body half.

These days, on 23 and 24 February 2017, the first edition of the “ Filum System ® Medical – Course for mental health professionals” is taking place in Barcelona. This course has been organized by the Filum Academy Barcelona ® in collaboration with Institut Chiari & Siringomielia & Escoliosis de Barcelona . The attendeesare mental health professionals who are interested in the “ Filum Disease ” and the psychological changes caused by this condition, as well as the role of psychotherapy in the post-sectioning of the filum terminale rehabilitation process.

At the Institut Chiari & Siringomielia & Escoliosis de Barcelona we are very aware that for our patients it is important to be able to express their concerns as freely as possible. Since its foundation, a team of international patient care was built in order to support our medical team in communicating with patients of any language or nationality. More on the topic of cultural mediation in this Blog post here . Today we want to introduce you to our collegue Nina Piorkowska. Polish speaking patients can count on their new contact person since July 2016 to look after them from the first email contact, to the first consultation in person, the surgical treatment and during all of the post-operative follow up process, acting as a bridge between the patients and the medical specialists of the Institut Chiari. 

Today we would like to share with share with you a video testimonial from a patient diagnosed with Neuro-Cranio-Vertebral Syndrome. Filum Disease. Descent of the cerebellar tonsils (DCT. Arnold-Chiari Syndrome I), recorded twenty days after her surgery according to the Filum System® . Our lovely patient is from Brazil and tells us her experience in Portuguese, but you can find a summary in English below.    Surgery date: June 2016   Miss De Oliveira tells us that she was not able top lay and run like other children when she was little because she suffered from pain and breathing difficulties. Her situation got worse in her teens as the pain increased in the head and body, together with fatigue and tremors in legs and eyes. There was a deterioration of the symptoms at the age of seventeen and she saw many physicians of different specialties over the next two years and received different diagnoses, from sinusitis to...