The Aword

More new research with promising results for endoscopic removal of AA. Don't know if the Doc has already seen it but here it is:

tinyurl.com/3yfzva

Hi Kev
DocSarah is way ahead of us on this one. She has been in touch with him for some time and plan to meet up soon. Our local support group will fund travelling expenses for her.
This was suppose to be HER news not mine but I know she is very busy at the moment trying to write a paper on something or other.
As for me, it's very much an invasive treatment and where it would not be for me, it's not my job to either promote or ignore these treatments. I am just the Information Officer;) The only other thing I would say is that it is an extract - and I learnt very early on in the '90's that you really need to read the whole paper before you can make a judgement. I don't know about follow up timescales and all sorts of things like that. Ann's story (coming soon on About Us) says she was pain free for three weeks and then went down hill very quickly after Kenalog.
Don't worry, if there is anything to report it will be on the website, whether I agree or not!
Bye for now
Kim
(Sorry Kev had to go in and edit months to weeks - just got my wrists slapped:( The timescale came from the reports on EP's only work for upto 3 months)<br><br>Post edited by: Kim, at: 2007/09/06 23:43

Found this on COFWA, looks like a similar op but done in Germany. Certainly sounds promising.

Endoscopic treatment of lumbar arachnoiditis.

Warnke JP, Mourgela S.

Department of Neurosurgery, Paracelsus Hospital, Zwickau, Germany.
dr.jan-peter.warnke@...

OBJECTIVE: The diagnosis of lumbar arachnoiditis remains complex and often
inconclusive. Using the technique of lumbar subarachnoidal endoscopy
(thecaloscopy), the pathology can be identified and the patient treated with
long-term effects on the symptoms. METHOD: Endoscopic operations were performed
on 23 patients suffering from varying symptoms with an enlarged lumbar
subarachnoidal space. Having confirmed the diagnosis of lumbar arachnoiditis, a
number of endoscopic operations ranging from adhesiolysis to
subarachno-epidurostomy were carried out. RESULTS: Radicular symptoms in lumbar
arachnoiditis were successfully relieved by various endoscopic dissection
techniques, such as restoration of the improved CSF flow by
subarachno-epidurostomy along the rootlet. This has been identified as one of
the causal factors of the clinical symptoms. In cases where lumbar pain persists
in spite of a previous thecaloscopy, further treatment with a lumboperitoneal
shunt device has proved most successful.