What is cerebral arachnoiditis and what does it express?
Quite often, if there are foci of chronic infection in the body, or as a result of a complicated course of viral diseases, an autoimmune process occurs in the body, affecting the arachnoid casing of the brain.
Cerebral arachnoiditis, even with the current level of development of medicine in the absence of treatment, causes severe hydrocephalus, visual and hearing damage, convulsive syndrome.
Features of the course of cerebral arachnoiditis
Most often cerebral arachnoiditis is detected in children and adolescents, as well as patients under the age of 40, with men becoming ill at any age much more often than women. In some cases, an active inflammatory process of autoimmune nature arises in the arachnoid shell of the brain, which flows undulating and tends to constantly increase the area of the lesion, which is manifested by the gradual addition of more and more new symptoms.
In others, the lesion is limited to a local lesion of a limited area of the brain envelope, and after a relatively short period of vivid clinical manifestations immediately after trauma or neuroinfection, residual arachnoiditis occurs - the consequences in this case can gradually regress and the patient's condition improves.
Causes of the disease
In the vast majority of cases, cerebral arachnoiditis develops 4-5 months after the virus infection( most often - the flu) or in patients with an acute or chronic foci of infection in the paranasal sinus or middle ear, trauma of the brain or spinal cord,malignant tumors( metastatic neoplasm in the brain or primary tumor), encephalitis.
The typical clinical picture of the disease, the presence of a sufficiently long "light" period between an infectious disease, trauma or tumor and the appearance of the first symptoms suggest that an autoimmune process occurs in the arachnoid shell of the brain.
Manifestations of the disease
Most often patients are concerned about headache and asthenia in the initial stage of the disease - the symptoms of arachnoiditis gradually increase and develop from the manifestations of cerebral disorders, explained by the development of the disorder of liquorodynamics, and local manifestations that reflect the localization of inflammation in the membranes of the brain.
This increased intracranial pressure provokes the appearance of attacks of nonsystemic dizziness, nausea and vomiting, which do not bring relief to the patient, sleep disturbances( there is both drowsiness and insomnia).Depending on the severity of local symptoms, the species of arachnoiditis( convective, basal, optic-chiasmal, and cerebellar) are distinguished, in which the characteristic clinical symptoms of the lesion of a certain area of the arachnoid are revealed.
The program of examination and treatment of
On how complete the examination of a patient with such symptoms and the examination performed will be, the diagnosis of arachnoiditis depends - treatment for almost any form of the disease consists of the appointment of hormonal drugs to suppress inflammation, antihistamines, resorption therapy.
In some cases, the treatment of cerebral arachnoiditis requires an operation that can eliminate disorders of liquorodynamics and intracranial hypertension. It is necessary to eliminate the focus of chronic infection.