{"id":15446,"date":"2018-02-05T10:46:01","date_gmt":"2018-02-05T10:46:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/?p=15446"},"modified":"2018-02-05T10:47:11","modified_gmt":"2018-02-05T10:47:11","slug":"improvement-of-severe-me-cfs-symptoms-following-surgical-treatment-of-cervical-spinal-stenosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/improvement-of-severe-me-cfs-symptoms-following-surgical-treatment-of-cervical-spinal-stenosis\/","title":{"rendered":"Improvement of severe ME\/CFS symptoms following surgical treatment of cervical spinal stenosis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Article abstract:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Improvement of severe myalgic encephalomyelitis\/chronic fatigue syndrome symptoms following surgical treatment of cervical spinal stenosis<\/a>, by\u00a0Peter C Rowe, Colleen L Marden, Scott Heinlein, Charles C Edwards II in<\/span> J Transl Med<\/em> 2018 16: 21 [Published online\u00a002 February 2018]<\/p>\n

Background:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Myalgic encephalomyelitis\/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME\/CFS) is a potentially disabling disorder. Little is known about the contributors to severe forms of the illness. We describe three consecutive patients with severe ME\/CFS whose symptoms improved after recognition and surgical management of their cervical spinal stenosis.<\/a><\/p>\n

Methods:<\/strong><\/p>\n

All patients satisfied clinical criteria for ME\/CFS and orthostatic intolerance<\/a>, and were later found to have cervical spinal stenosis. Overall function was assessed before and after surgery using the Karnofsky score and the SF-36 physical function subscale score.<\/p>\n

Results:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Neurological findings included > 3+ deep tendon reflexes in 2 of 3, a positive Hoffman sign in 2 of 3, tremor in 2 of 3, and absent gag reflex in 1 of 3. The cervical spine canal diameter in the three patients ranged from 6 to 8.5 mm. One had congenital cervical stenosis with superimposed spondylosis, and two had single- or two-level spondylosis. Anterior cervical disc replacement surgery in two patients and a hybrid anterior cervical disc fusion and disc replacement in the third was associated with a marked improvement in myelopathic symptoms, resolution of lightheadedness and hemodynamic dysfunction, improvement in activity levels, and improvement in global ME\/CFS symptoms.<\/p>\n

Conclusions:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The prompt post-surgical restoration of more normal function suggests that cervical spine stenosis contributed to the pathogenesis of refractory ME\/CFS and orthostatic symptoms. The improvements following surgery emphasize the importance of a careful search for myelopathic<\/a> examination findings in those with ME\/CFS, especially when individuals with severe impairment are not responding to treatment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Article abstract: Improvement of severe myalgic encephalomyelitis\/chronic fatigue syndrome symptoms following surgical treatment of cervical spinal stenosis, by\u00a0Peter C Rowe, Colleen L Marden, Scott Heinlein, Charles C Edwards II in J Transl Med 2018 16: 21 [Published online\u00a002 February 2018] … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[4186,4189,4187,492,1023,4188,36],"class_list":["post-15446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-cervical-spinal-stenosis","tag-charles-c-edwards-ii","tag-colleen-l-marden","tag-orthostatic-intolerance","tag-peter-c-rowe","tag-scott-heinlen","tag-severe-me"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5qkYK-418","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15446"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15449,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15446\/revisions\/15449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}