Does anyone have experiece/know of treatment options for chiari? Hello, I was wondering if anyone has had experience with chiari and knew of any treatments. My boyfriend (he is 20) has just been diagnosed with the disease (has off-and-on, mild to severe headaches) and friends and family are trying to find out as much as possible. 

He has seen a neurosurgeon, but he said the only option was surgery, with a bovine skull replacement, or just deal w/ the headaches (unless neurological signs begin). It seemed like a pretty hollistic view. His mom has already found out the bovine skull is not necessary for the surgury.

He is going in for a second opinion in LA and have a MRI of the spine as well. I was just wondering if anyone else had experience with this and knew of other ways to treat it? Some of the info is vague, I'm not sure if it is type 1 or 2, and the cyst is about 4 cm large right now :/ Thanks so much in advance, and any help is greatly appreciated!

Summarized question: What are treatments for chiari?