This could be any of us! (arachnoiditis)

[mmglobal]

This thread was originally in a separate forum for arachnoiditis patients. That community settled somewhere else and the ispine arach forum never took off. 9/15/2013 I've closed the arach forum and moved the few threads to main iSpine forum.
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I've now spent time with Dr. Warnke in California, and on two trips to Zwickau. As I come to understand more about these problems, it becomes clear that we (the spine patient community) have too much in common with the arach community. According to Dr. Warnke, the process that creates arachnoiditis is the same problem that causes the neuroforaminal and tarlov cysts. Something compromises the dura and blood, medications, contrast and chemicals used in surgery find their way into the spinal cord or cauda equina. Some women get it from spinal epidural anesthesia. Some of us are at risk from poorly performed epidural steriod injections.

Histological studies have determined that arachnoiditis may be part of an elevated immune response that will happen in a small percentage of the patients. Some of us will have CSF leaks that will be resolved by a blood patch. For others, when the blood migrates intradural, it kicks off an exaggerated immune response that causes arachnoiditis.

We have seen many patients who, folloing lumbar fusion or ADR surgery, are left with horrible leg and foot pain that will not resolve. The ADR patients call this 'distraction pain'. I wonder how much of this is arachnoiditis?

My point is that this could be me. I hope that we will ultimately find a way to avoid this disease. First we must learn more about it!

Mark