Hi Everyone,
I'm new here but not new to Chiari.... been dealing with it for years. Recently found out my daughter has it so I took her straight to Dr. Kula at the Chiari Institute. He said she needed the procedure without a doubt. Since I live in NY I was able to see 4 of the top Chiari neurosurgeons and whats interesting is they all seem do the procedure differently. Since I myself didn't have the procedure I didn't know there were variations... I just thought it was a pretty standard thing. In our case this is what was suggested.
#1. He said with his procedure he opens the skull, cuts the vertebra, opens the dura, inserts a plate to support the tonsils, and closes with a dura patch. He uses your own tissue for the patch.
#2 He gave me 3 options for the procedure but stated I should have him do the third which is to open the skull, opens the dura, cauterize the tonsils and sews the dura back together without a patch.
#3 He said open the skull, cut the vertebra, and just thin the dura. It's less invasive and will accomplish what we need done.
#4 He said open skull, open the dura, cut the vertebra and close with a dura patch. He uses a different kind of patch- can't remember what it's called.
So if you are new to this and considering having the procedure you might want to get several opinions to see which procedure is best for you.
Now my question is does anyone know a good neurologist on Long Island? Seems one of the doctors has issues with the Chiari Institute so I agreed to get a second opinion.
Thanks for your help!