Chiari Malformation and Extreme Makeover Home Edition

The Chiari Malformation is a brain disorder many people are suffering from. We have written this article because one family that will have its dream home built by the TV program Extreme Makeover Home Edition has 3 daughters who suffer form this disease.

The first thing we are going to talk about is the general information and data about this disease in the following paragraphs. Also we will describe the symptoms, hereditary conditions and the treatment needed to treat wit this problem in the brain of someone. The characteristics of this disease in a patient are the following: low flow of fluids in the cerebrospinal system, a little posterior fossa. Sometime may appear elongated tonsils. Someone you know with this disease can have one of the types: I, II, III, and IV. The most common of them is the type II.

One of the rare things about this disease is that the symptoms can appear in the adolescence or later, but sometimes children can have it. Common symptoms are: disequilibria, balance problems, headaches, also neck pains can be part of the problem. Many times patients have problem of vision, they cannot see bright light, they will suffer from hearing loss and problems with the vocal cords may appear. The cerebrospinal fluids can enter the spinal cord and this can crate a cavity known as syrinx, which will cause disorder.

One of the main options that someone with Chiari Malformation has is surgery, in this case what the physician is going to do is to open the base of the skull to unrestricted the CSF flow of the spine. But before you consider this kind of solution we suggest you to have a very deep and long consultation with you physician. One of the cases where you can consider surgery is when you have a long period suffering from the symptoms of this disease. Also surgery is not recommended if you do not meet the following conditions: the symptoms are unbearable, the neurological deterioration is evident, you have MRI proof of you syrinx enlargement.

The natural history of Chiari Malformation is not completed understood, and because of this is not recommended that you use surgery to prevent problems in the future. A procedure that uses intra-operative color Doppler ultrasound monitoring has been developed through the past three years. The successful Chiari surgery requires: a) restoration of the good CSF flow in the spinal compartments and in the cranial areas, b) reconstruction of the cerebrospinal fluid spaces, c) the nerve tissue must be decompressed.

There is no answer to the question about the inheritance of Chairi Malformation but in some members of families have been discovered this disease at the same time, but there is no conclusion about the inheritance of this disease.

If you see any member of you family with frequent vision problem, problems with bright light, difficulty to hear you, frequent headaches, these can be a Chairi Malformation. You have to call your physician in this case, and remember that if you are going to use the surgery, you must meet all the requirements needed to do it.

Sources:

Chiari Malformation, The Chiari Institute