Incidents in the Section of the filum terminale

Published by ICSEB at 14 May, 2009

I am very worried with the indications, comments and type of interventions that are being applied to patients with Syringomyelia in countries like Italy and France and which have started to apply the section of the filum terminale.

Here I have a part of the recent consultation done through e-mail of an Italian patient suffering from traumatic Syringomyelia where neither the section of the filum terminale nor the drainage of the Syringomyelic cavity are indicated, including the linguistic argot:

“dopo un peggioramento da circa 1 anno e mezzo, il dottore della mia città vorrebbe farmi altro drenaggio, un’altra eqipe di Firenze.. invece vuole farmi la resezione del filum! x via intradurale..senza però garantirmi nulla sul esito..e cmq un’operazione di certo invasiva..mah!”

“after a year and a half of worsening, the doctor from my city wanted to practice on me another drainage, meanwhile, the team in Florence wanted to practice the section of the filum terminale! through via intradural, without any guarantee of good results…and besides it would be an invasive intervention…gosh!”

The worsening in this case is due to the presence of an evident herniated disc in C3-4, which has not been taken in consideration by the different consulted specialists.

On the other hand there is a team in the Kremlin-Bicêter Hospital that practiced two interventions of the section of the filum terminale on two patients with Syringomyelia with no valid surgical criteria. The insults they uttered to us such as: “charlatan” came from this precise hospital some months ago according to a patient operated with the SFT.

What also worries me is the mercantilist aspect of a French professional inexperienced in these pathologies, which before operating the first case, they already have proposed economic offers to people who consider themselves legitimated to direct groups of patients with different interests in the correct medical praxis.

The saddest news we received was from Italy when the sectioning of a nerve at the intradural lumbar level was done when trying to practice the section of the filum terminale.

The proposed section of the filum terminale for the treatment of various neurological illnesses, which constitute the new NeuroCraneoVertebral Sindrome, is effective when a cautious selection of patients is made; in the presence of many factors, such as the correct indication or the contraindication for the intervention. Besides, it is precise to have a special post-operation control and the patient’s collaboration to understand the objectives of the operation and the future results. Since these successful interventions could end up with a negative result
without doing this Psycho neurological control when it is actually positive, especially with the complex clinical setting and the frequent disapprobation and insults uttered by some uninformed and malicious professionals.

The indications and contraindications of the NeuroCraneoVertebral Sindrome, which forms part of the Syringomyelia are reflected in the different publications and its fundamentals in the understanding of the whole explanation from the doctoral thesis up until the last publication (see the bibliography in the INB and ICSEB webpage). We are updating all this criteria from the discovering of new pathologies related with new signs and symptoms.
Confirming some in the form of a doctoral thesis and others in publications with investigative studies sponsored by the “Chiari & Scoliosis & Syringomyelia Foundation”.

Dr. Royo Salvador