Are surgeons missing the major differential diagnosis that is more common than multiple sclerosis and HIV combined?, by Nina Muirhead in Royal College of Surgeons blog, 21 Feb 2019
It’s a great feeling when we meet a new outpatient that we know how to manage surgically. Unfortunately, every surgical specialty experiences a subgroup of patients who present with symptoms that cannot be resolved by surgery. These symptoms may span immune, neurological and vascular systems within the body or brain and may manifest themselves in various ways in several organs at the same time. (See list of symptoms below)
Often these patients have been back-and-forth to the GP or passed on by other medical and surgical specialties. They tend to be the cases that are difficult to diagnose, quantify, understand and detect with routine investigations.
My story
In September 2016, I became ill with acute Epstein Barr Virus Glandular Fever. I continued working, exercising and trying to lead a normal family and social life. I developed all the symptoms listed below, as well as post-exertional malaise (PEM). Every time I tried to do anything challenging (mentally, physically or emotionally) I would experience severe symptom exacerbation and flu-like sore throats with head and neck pain. I couldn’t work, read or watch TV. I couldn’t look after myself, let alone my children, and could barely walk and digest food. Eventually I was diagnosed with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS).
Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Often triggered by a viral infection, ME/CFS, can be distinguished from medical and psychiatric conditions by the presence of debilitating fatigue for more than six months and/or combinations of cognitive dysfunction, total body pain, unrefreshing sleep that does not restore normal function and PEM.
I was never taught about ME/CFS at medical school and it certainly wasn’t in the MRCS examinations that I passed a decade ago. I had a vague notion that it was an illness related to deconditioning, but I was wrong. ME/CFS is a serious neurological condition which can be fatal.
Given that my own prior understanding of ME/CFS was so misguided, I was not surprised to read in the BMJ that 90% of cases of ME/CFS are thought to go undiagnosed, suggesting that people with ME/CFS are substantially undercounted, underdiagnosed and undertreated. In another study, 41.9% of ME/CFS patients were told by emergency department staff that it was all in their heads. Biobank data suggests ME/CFS is a heritable condition estimated to affect over 286,000 people in the UK; this is more common than multiple sclerosis and HIV combined, and many patients are waiting years for a diagnosis.
