Caring Medical - Symptoms - Arachnoiditis

I found this site on Arachnoiditis (you can click the title to go to the page) and thought I would post it. While I have defined and described AA many times it never hurts to put it back up for those who may be new to my blog.

CONDITION: Arachnoiditis

DESCRIPTION:
Technically, arachnoiditis is a chronic inflammation of the arachnoid layer of the meninges (the layers of tissue covering the spinal cord and the brain). When scar tissue is deposited over these layers, as often occurs after back surgery, it clumps together and compresses nerve roots, cutting off blood flow. This leads to damaged and malfunctioning nerves. The scar tissue also restricts cerebrospinal fluid flow in the subarachnoid space; thus nerve roots cannot get nutrients. Proper diagnosis is often difficult because signs of inflammation, such as redness or fever, are absent. Pain associated with arachnoiditis typically does not respond to pain medication or muscle relaxants.

How does arachnoiditis develop?
A number of circumstances can cause arachnoiditis, including:
• Spinal surgery (especially multiple operations)
• Multiple punctures to the lumbar
• A serious car accident
• Certain dyes known as myelographic dyes
• Intraspinal injections, such as steroid injections
• Meningitis
• Amphotericin B (an antifungal) and methotrexate (an antimetabolite)
• Spinal stenosis
• Chemonucleolysis with chymopapain
• Degenerative disc disease / chronic disc prolapse
• Subarachnoid hemorrhage
• An epidural blood patch

It is difficult to estimate exactly how each factor contributes to the development of arachnoiditis. However, the presence of more than one of the above factors may increase the risk.

What are the symptoms of arachnoiditis?
Arachnoiditis can create extensive scarring of the meninges, which can lead to a debilitating, constant burning pain usually mixed with sharp, stabbing pains. It occurs mainly in the limbs and lower back, but can spread up the spine and through the arms. Neurological problems often accompany arachnoiditis, leading to muscle jerks, spasms and muscle weakness, which in turn leads to bladder, bowel and sexual dysfunction, a swelling of the limbs, and cold extremities from poor circulation, as well as fatigue, malaise, depression, stress, loss of memory, muddled thinking, osteoporosis, weight gain and poor sleeping habits. Medication may create additional symptoms. Numbness in different parts of the body may also be experienced, and the body may be very sensitive to touch. Tight or heavy clothing may be extremely uncomfortable, a condition referred to as allodynia.

Conventional medical treatments may help relieve the symptoms of arachnoiditis, but they do not address the root of the problem. By strengthening structural weaknesses in the body, as natural medicine treatments like Prolotherapy do, pain associated with arachnoiditis may be alleviated permanently.

Discover why we believe that natural medicine treatments are the best way to treat arachnoiditis.