The Institut Chiari & Siringomielia & Escoliosis de Barcelona Completes 10 Years of Excellence in Patient Care

Published by ICSEB at 18 May, 2018

Since 2008, the ICSEB team has looked after patients from 61 countries, offering a worldwide unique treatment based on more than 40 years of experience.

On 12 June 2008, the doors of the Institut Chiari & Siringomielia & Escoliosis de Barcelona (ICSEB) headquarters opened for the first time to the public. The opening ceremony, even though it only seemed to be a starting point, was actually also the culmination of an intense medical and scientific work that had started in the seventies led by Dr. Miguel B. Royo-Salvador, ICSEB’s Director and Founder.

At the beginning of his investigation, Dr. Royo focused on the cause of idiopathic Syringomyelia, followed by that of the Arnold-Chiari Syndrome Type I and, later, the cause of idiopathic Scoliosis. He reached the conclusion that these three conditions, together with other associated ones, share a common point: the cause. According to scientific criteria, the origin of these conditions is an abnormal tension of a ligament that is called Filum terminale and that joins the end of the spinal cord with the lower end of the spine (the first vertebrae of the coccyx). That tension then causes traction on the spinal cord and the entire nervous system of the patient, what causes an important part of the signs and symptoms that characterise these conditions.

With his doctoral thesis, published in 1992, Dr. Royo laid the theoretical foundations for a new treatment for the conditions with the creation of the health method Filum System^®, a system of protocols designed for diagnosing and treating a new disease concept: the Filum Disease.

Obtaining excellent results with his innovative method, Dr. Royo started to receive a significant number of patients from other countries who travelled to Barcelona to see him in his practice (when the ICSEB did not exist yet). In order to offer them the best possible attention, he started to look for translators and language professionals.

The experience of seeing this increasing demand was the starting point toward the foundation of the ICSEB in 2008, with the goal of being a centre of international excellence. It hence has an extended staff team, made up not only of physicians, but also by various types of polyglot professionals from different parts of the world that dedicate themselves mainly to patient care tasks. ICSEB’s facilities have seen more then five thousand patients with 61 different nationalities, all of them looking for a way of halting their diseases and, despite their complexity, improving their symptoms.

Currently, ICSEB is the only reference centre worldwide for the surgical practice according to the Filum System^® method for this kind of condition, the Filum Disease. Besides ICSEB, there is a network of professionals (currently in Italy and Poland) who are accredited to carry out first diagnostic consultations and post-op check up appointments, according to the protocols of the Filum System^®. ICSEB is also a reference centre for the treatment of disc herniations (some with an own technique).

All this work results in ICSEB having obtained, amongst many other successes, the “Research & Development (R&D) Certificate” from the Spanish Innovation Certification Agency (ACIE), recognition of its innovation activities with the award of the seal “Innovative SME” from the Spanish Ministry for Economy, Industry and Competitiveness; the “ISO 9001:2015 Certification (IQNet and AENOR)”, for the activities of Research, Diagnosis and Treatment of the Filum Disease and also for the diagnosis and treatment of neurosurgical diseases.

One of the outcomes of the constant effort directed at consolidating its protocols and quality guidelines is the Satisfaction Rate among patients to have undergone treatment and surgery. The rate is of 94.2% with excellent clinical and surgical results. The workday at ICSEB is hence not only characterized by the application of the best management, technology and innovation formulae; but also by the frequent demonstration of gratitude and affection on part of many patients.

ICSEB also wants to express its gratitude to its patients for their trust and their completely spontaneous help disseminating the work that has been carried out here during the past 10 years. We also want to thank all those individuals, organizations and entities that have helped us to perfect this effort that started more than 40 years ago.