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

In November 2024, Dr. M. B. Royo-Salvador presented a groundbreaking study titled "Filum Disease Behind Fibromyalgia: A Preliminary Study " at the 13th International Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology (ICBEB 2024) in Singapore. This research explores the potential link between Filum Disease and Fibromyalgia Syndrome , conditions that share numerous clinical features. The study involved 25 patients who underwent minimally invasive surgery to section the filum terminale using the Filum System® technique. Findings indicate a high prevalence of shared symptoms, including headaches, neck pain, limb pain, and fatigue , among others. The discussion suggests that spinal cord traction from Filum Disease may impair perfusion and brain metabolism, altering pain sensitivity and leading to spinal sensitization, similar to C entral Sensitivity Syndromes like Fibromyalgia . The study concludes that Filum Disease and Fibromyalgia are likely closely related , sharing ...

This patient travelled from the United States of America to Spain for treatment at the Institut Chiari & Siringomielia & Escoliosis de Barcelona for treatment according to the Filum System® . The minimally invasive Sectioning of the filum terminale was applied in September 2016 for her diagnosis Neuro-Cranio-Vertebral Syndrome, Filum Disease , Arnold-Chiari Syndrome Type I , idiopathic Syringomyelia and idiopathic Scoliosis . Now, a little more than two years after the procedure, she generously shares her experience with the recovery process. Thank you, Patricia! "It has been over 2 years since my surger y. I wanted to wait a long time to give feedback. This is my experience.

The patient had mobility problems in her lower extremities. She didn’t have strength in her legs to stand and was using a wheelchair. Diagnosed with the Neuro-Cranio-Vertebral Syndrome. Filum disease. Descent of the Cerebellar tonsils (Arnold-Chiari Syndrome Type I). Idiopathic Syringomyelia. Multiple disk disease. Odontoid retroflexion, she went the minimally invasive procedure of the sectioning of the filum terminale according to the Filum System® at the Institut Chiari & Siringomielia & Escoliosis de Barcelona in July 2018. You can see recordings from the pre-op day, one day after the procedure and one week post-op.  

We are very happy and grateful to be able to share our young patient Taylor's account of her experience today.

Today we would like to share yet another wonderful patient story. Rafael, a young patient affected by the Neuro-Cranio-Vertebral Syndrome, Filum Disease with an intramedullary cyst (idiopathic Syringomyelia) had to rely on a wheelchair to get around when he arrived at the Institut Chiari & Siringomielia & Escoliosis de Barcelona for his first consultation. After receiving the confirmation that he was a candidate for the Filum System® health method, he underwent the minimally invasive surgical procedure that is part of this method (the sectioning of teh filum terminale). In this video you can follow his post-op course during the first weeks after the procedure with short clips recorded by his family and at the Institute. Here in Barcelona we are very happy for Rafael and his family and very grateful to be able to share these images. We wish him the best for his recovery and rehabilitation and hope to continue seeing these great results.

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.

We will be addressing some recurring questions among our patients in today's post.    What should you do when your doctor indicates a surgery? Surgical indication must be the result of a detailed study of the case, which takes into consideration all factors, like possible diagnosis and treatments, age, quality of life, expectations, etc. When is the application of Filum System® (FS ® ) surgical protocol indicated for the Filum Disease? As soon as possible after the disease has been diagnosed, to eliminate its cause and prevent the pathology from developing further. The diagnosis Filum Disease means that there is a progressive physical and especially a neurological deterioration ongoing.

Observations on idiopathic Scoliosis based on a work presented by Gioia Luè , psychologist, at the 8th CSSf Meeting in Mâcon, France, in 2014.    Patients with scoliosis, in the 12 to 18 age group, talk to us and express their daily life problems and disappointments due to this disease. The delicacy of their relationship with their changing bodies during adolescence is well known. If to this precarious balance a misalignment of the vertebral column is added, provoking an incorrect posture that is less attractive and requires certain special care, it is readily apparent that the difficulties can go from being physical to social and psychological.

Won’t my spinal cord be moving around on the inside after cutting the filum? The sectioning of the filum terminale ligament involves the elimination of the anomalous traction that acts on the patient’s spinal cord and nervous system. Once the surgery is performed, the nervous system is liberated, but no tissue changes its position. Only in some cases we detect that the conus medullaris and the descended cerebellar tonsils, over time and very slowly (normally years after the surgery), may rise by some millimetres.

The Institut Chiari & Siringomielia & Escoliosis de Barcelona (ICSEB) is happy to announce that during the past month of May 2015, the Spanish Innovation Certification Agency (ACIE) and ENAC have certified our project “ Research, development and application of the diagnosis and treatment of the new Filum Disease ” as Research and Development (R&D).

The physicians Roberto MANTIA, Marco DI GESÚ, Ángelo VETRO, Fabrizio MANTIA, Sebastiano PALMA and Ángelo IOVANE have pointed out the possibility of an existing relationship between the Filum disease and the predisposition to develop the fibromyalgia syndrome.

The Chiari & Scoliosis & Syringomyelia Foundation is happy to announce the next scientific meeting that will be held in the city of Lublin (Poland) on upcoming 27 June 2015. The meeting is organized by the Oddział Lubeslski Polskiego Towarzystwa Neurochirurgów Society together with the Institut Chiari & Siringomielia & Escoliosis de Barcelona and will count with the presence of the distinguished professor Dr. Krzysztof Turowski and the Spanish scientist Dr. Miguel B. Royo Salvador. The conference’s title will be: “Filum System®: Outcomes in the Filum Disease: the Arnold Chiari I Syndrome, idiopathic Syringomyelia and idiopathic Scoliosis” .   We will keep you informed…   Photo: The Old City - Lublin. Author: Trevor Butcher. www.flickr.com. CC licensed.

 At CSSf , they are still looking for the winners: "Dear friends, the Chiari & Scoliosis & Syringomyelia Foundation (CSSf) would like to thank you for all the solutions of the Crossword that we have received. We have to admit that we received more than 15 correct solutions and that the puzzle really was not as easy as it seemed. For those who have sent in their solutions: please sent us your contact details before 28 February, in order to make the prize draw for the Foundation shirts. Without the contact information we won’t be able to send your well deserved gift.

“The Neuro-Cranio-Vertebral Syndrome caused by a congenital anomaly of an apparently normal Filum terminale, which however exerts a traction on the spinal cord and the entire nervous system” We consider the “Filum Disease” to be the condition that is caused by an anomalous traction exerted by the filum terminale ligament on the spinal cord. It finds its expression in form of different diseases which previously in medical history have been described as being independent from each other: the Arnold Chiari I Syndrome , Idiopathic Syringomyelia and Idiopathic Scoliosis , Platybasia , Basilar Invagination , Retroflexed Odontoid , Kinking of the brain stem and nocturnal Enuresis .

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.

The Institut Chiari & Siringomielia & Escoliosis de Barcelona (ICSEB) is a highly specialised private centre that is concerned with offering advanced solutions on medical and neurosurgical level for brain and spine diseases. The Institut first comes into existence in Barcelona, Spain, in 2007, and is born out of the need of Miguel B. Royo Salvador, MD PhD, director and founder of the “Institut Neurologic de Barcelona”, for a space where he could dedicate himself to the three pathologies from that the centre takes its name: Arnold Chiari Syndrome I, Idiopathic Syringomyelia and Idiopathic Scoliosis.