The new surgical procedure is controversial because it is being offered to patients suffering from what many doctors believe are psychiatric diseases. There are no good scientific studies yet available, but some patients claim that after the procedure, they are full of energy and have no pain for the first time in years. Surgeons Dan Heiffez and Michael Rosen perform this operation on patients with all-over muscle pain, sleep disturbances, and extreme weakness with the presumption that they are suffering from a form of Chiari Syndrome.
Chiari syndrome is named after the man who first described it.
This syndrome is caused by a herniation of the base of the brain into the top of the spinal canal, causing pain, muscle weakness, visual disturbances, terrible headaches, seizures, and in the worst cases, may mimic a brain tumor. Doctors Heiffez and Rosen theorize that Chiari Syndrome is the condition patients assume to be fibromyalgia. They believe that the brain stem and spinal cord are being compressed in the spinal canal because the bony canal is too narrow. They claim that MRI studies confirm this diagnosis. Instead of traditional treatment, exercise, anti-depressants, and psychotherapy, they open the top of the cervical spinal canal to decompress the brain stem and the top of the spinal cord.