Identifying and Living with Arachnoiditis

What is that ? Arachnoiditis is not a fondness for spiders. It is a debilitating disease for those several thousand in the world who have been diagnosed with it. Many times it goes undetected because most doctors are unfamiliar with it. It is not a life threatening disease so is not a widely studied one. Arachnoiditis is inflammation of the arachnoid or middle layer of the spinal cord. The name comes from the spider web of scarring from this inflammation. According to Dr. Sarah Smith the inflammation causes constant irritation, scarring and binding of the nerve roots and blood vessels. It is characterized by severe stinging and burning pain and neurological problems. It also causes tingling, numbness, or weakness in the legs, feeling like insects are crawling on the skin or water trickling down the leg, severe shooting pains, muscle cramps, spasms and uncontrollable twitching, bladder, bowel and/ or sexual dysfunction.

If the disease progresses, symptoms may become more severe or even permanent. The disease can become very debilitating as the pain is constant and intractable. Most people who have arachnoiditis are unable to work which in most cases causes isolation that leads to depression. There are three main causes of this disease. The first is trauma which is surgically induced by way of surgeries which invade the spinal cord or trauma to the spine. Others are multiple lumber punctures such as epidurals, advanced spinal stenosis or chronic degenerative disc disease. The second is chemically induced by way of mylograms which use various chemicals that are injected into the spinal cord for contrast for tests such as CT or MRI scans. The third cause is infection induced. This can be caused by infections such as viral and fungal meningitis or tuberculosis.

There is no cure for arachnoiditis. Treatments are given to help with pain relief and are similar to other chronic pain treatments.