ABC 20-20

[Guest guest]

Just saw the Dr. Tim bit on 20-20. It was about Fibromyalgia and

Chronic Fatigue syndrome.

One of the docs who does the surgery described will be in ABC chat room at

ABC.com on Monday at 4:30 p.m. EST answering questions from anyone

interested.

For those of you who did not see 20-20, the program suggested that there are

a lot of patients diagnosed w/fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome that

are actually suffering from a neuorological disorder -- a compression of the

brain stem and/or spinal cord that may be cause by some irritation or

inflammation of the nerves involved. The solution is to perform a 4-hour

neuro surgery that relieves the pressure on the brain stem and/or the spinal

cord.

A little over 80% of people having the surgery report improvement. That is

considered anectodal evidence, not scientific, so some docs say they would

not use it because it is unproven. The docs who do it see their patients get

better and they believe in it.

The Diagnosis is via MRI. Some patients actually send their MRIs to the two

docs mentioned on the program for them to review and determine if surgery

would help them.

Can't remember anything else except that the " rest of the story " seemed to be

that people with chronic fatique syndrome or fibromyalgia should have a

neurological evaluation that includes MRI of brain stem area and spinal cord

to be sure their symptoms are not related to compression of the nerves

instead of an auto-immune problem.

H.