A nationwide study has shed new light on how to most effectively and safely treat Chiari malformation and syringomyelia, rare neurological diseases that impact both children and young adults.
In the first randomized controlled clinical trial for this condition conducted in the United States, a multicenter research team compared two surgical approaches most commonly used for treating this condition.
According to the results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the approaches showed no difference in complication rates and clinical outcomes; however, patients who underwent the more invasive procedure were less likely to need a second surgery and appeared to have greater improvement in their syringomyelia.
These insights are the culmination of more than 15 years of collaboration of more than 40 clinical centers and nearly half of all pediatric neurosurgeons in the country, making it the most widespread pediatric neurosurgical trial to date.
The collaboration was led by David Limbrick, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Medicine and a neurosurgeon at Children's Hospital of Richmond at VCU.
