Hello,
Thanks for providing this site. I have been dealing with extreme pain from a failed fusion surgery back in 2001.
L-4 to S-1 with cages, with rods and screws and a whole lot of anatomy removed! Loss of Bowel and Bladder function, lots of numbness in the rectum area, tail bone and right leg, ankle and foot.
It started with not being able to walk, to the ER and an MRI showing near complete compression of the thecal sac (L-4,5 area). Admitted to the Hospital - lost bladder control after day 2 and typical numbness from Cauda Equina Syndrome. No one told me what was going on but 5 days later I had the fusion and only after doing my own research on the internet about a month later when I was finally released from the hospital. OH! the stories I have!!!

A recent MRI shows, increasing in size from a 2 year old MRI, a cystic like structure on the L4-5 nerve root sheath showing a CSF signal, and new cystic structures at L-4 and S-1.

I have struggled in extreme pain over the years and have had nerve block galore and they have kept me going but they have been higher than L-4-5 as my PM doc is afraid of rupturing this sac/cyst at L-4-5. I have not had an MRI study of S-2 downward. That is my goal.

When I recently came across the "Doctors that treat Tarlov Cyst's " website, and putting a lot of other research together and my pain symptoms, I new I needed to find out more.

My worst pain is the pain I get in the rectum and the ankle, foot, heel and toes. I have been told that this pain stems from the herniated disc that nearly compressed my spinal cord for 5 days. Now I am not so sure.

Oddly, the pain I get in the rectum and ankle, foot and heel are the same and occur at the same time. Vise like pain clamping down, walking, standing or sitting on a rock or the feeling of sitting on my bones in the effected area.

It really hurts, off the charts until I get my Break thru pain meds in me.
I also have come to find that the pain in the tail bone area, the swelling, sitting on a rock and even laying down causes the tail bone to hurt.

So, I hope to get an S- series MRI to see if there are cysts below S-1 and find a doc to get rid of the other cyst or cysts that are there are growing.

I am going to use UC Davis for a second opinion and there is a doctor there who will look at all my files and then advise me on what he/they think.

Any Cauda Equina Syndrome people out there?
It seems that the definition and understanding of what was called scar tissue and then arachnoiditis is moving along to the formation of a type of Tarlov Cyst, mine stemming from a 3 level fusion.

I am off to educate my PM doc tomorrow and then later in August my surgeon who 2 years ago said the L-4-5 cyst, then called a dural ecstasia is not causing any of my pain.

Hope I didn't go too long.

Richard