If you read here....THE ADHESIVE ARACHNOIDITIS SYNDROME http://www.arachnoiditis.info/conten...ndrome_12.html

It says that rsd is part of this disease? A friend found this by accident looking for reviews of scs trials....it is quite interested...especially since the this disease talks about sweating and all sorts of things that have not seen associated with rsd prior to this. She thought I might want to read this if for no other reason than it is interesting considering we both have rsd. And I thought maybe the rest of you might find it interesting. This is very interesting reading because alot of these symptoms listed are believe it or not, ones I have read on this forum, but are not necessarily listed on any RSD website. Makes me wonder if some of us actually have Arachnoiditis to begin with & NOT RSD at all.

CAUSES:
* Spinal surgery (especially multiple)
* Myelographic dyes (especially oil-based such as Myodil (Pantopaque))
* Epidural steroid injections (e.g.Depo-Medrol)
* Epidural anaesthesia
* Other intraspinal drugs such as amphotericin B and methotrexate
* Multiple lumbar punctures
* Trauma
* Infection e.g. meningitis
* Subarachnoid haemorrhage
* Spinal stenosis
* Chronic disc prolapse+

TREATMENT OPTIONS, I listed the website as this is long:
http://www.arachnoiditis.info/conten...ndrome_17.html

PROGNOSIS

Arachnoiditis has been described as an insidious disease that is incurable. Guyer’s paper on the prognosis of arachnoiditis ([38]) suggests that there tends to be a spectrum of the course of the disease, which varies from mild and non-progressive, to a fulminating progression that may cause paralysis and even death. Wilkinson ([39]) believes that progression after the first 24 months is unlikely to be due to the disease process alone. Most authors state that its onset may be years after the precipitating cause.

In general, arachnoiditis presents a highly variable clinical picture, with a fluctuating course. Some patients seem to reach a “plateau” and stabilise without further deterioration, whereas there is a group of patients who develop a relatively rapid progressive deterioration (within a matter of months) during which they tend to lose function in the affected limb(s). This tends to happen after a seemingly trivial event such as a minor fall or car accident.

The thing with the prognosis is that no one that I know has become paralyzed or died solely due to RSD. I know of no one who has been Dx'ed with Arachnoiditis. But gives one much to ponder.

DebbyV

Ugh

I'm afraid of spiders

That's really interesting, I've had really swollen lymph nodes and have been trying to find some sort of connection to rsd because antibiotics aren't doing a thing for it . . . .

Has anyone ever heard of this before? I haven't . . . .

finz,

*LOL* I bet I hate them worse than you do.......spiders that is. I was bitten by a Brown Recluse when I lived in Iowa in 1992. I ended up hospitalized for about ten days due to dehydration. I was one really sick lady. And the bite site YUCKY!! and the site where it curved in my side & came back out YUCKY!!! Had a hard yellow crater with black dead skin all around it. NASTY!!!

But this Arachnoiditis is not caused by spiders.............look at the causes page............

DebbyV

I had never heard of this syndrome before either............

That's the first thing I thought of too.

I read through some of that, and googled it too. It seems to be mostly in the back. I didn't read the whole thing, but that is the idea that I got. I like to look at any possible thing that could be causing DD's pain. I don't think this is it in her case.

Thanks for the info.

P.S. She is afraid of spiders too.

My dog was bite by a brown recluse once . . . . . It was nasty! So I know what you mean, all of her fur fell out and the wound became about the size of a saucer for a coffee cup, it was awful, those are some nasty spiders.

Reading that made me wonder about spread though . . . . Like people that experience spread after scs or other procedures having to do with the spine. Makes me wonder if it's not really the rsd spreading but this. I'm not really sure it matters much in the end, since they are so similiar . . . . But it would seem with this one any sort of procudures to the spine could make it worse, so if you did have this instead of rsd in your back, and got blocks or epidurals, it could make it worse instead of better.

Oops.....sorry Deb, I should have followed up here before.........obviously just joking on the spiders comment, but I have heard of arachnoiditis before when I was first researching RSD.

debby,

i know u remember Vicc.....well, arachnoiditis was the diagnosis of his original spinal injury....for him, the rsd came later......his emphasis was always on the rsd, so i guess not everyone knows that he had arachnoiditis too.

the 'arachnoid' part is bcause the junction of all the nerves at that spot on the spine looks like a spider.

thought you'd wnat to know.

liz,
good to see you still come here too.........and yes I remember Vic......very well. And no I didn't know he had that DX. I came on quite a while after he did & never heard him talk abou that. Thanks for letting me know. I miss him......and hope his family is doing well.

How are you doing?? I am hanging in there.......For some reason I am hurting ALOT this summer. Not only RSD pain, but the Fibro pain has been atrocious this year.

DebbyV

Very, very seriously doubt it. The opposite is more likely true. Could exist as a comorbitity though, I suppose...I hate spiders too! Ugh...