Reply To: Heading (Hopefully) to Remission

The thing is, if you take an MRI of pretty much anyone over the age of 30 — and certainly anyone over the age of 40 — you will find bulging, degenerative disks, bone spurs, and spinal stenosis (narrowing of the spinal canal). When physicians see these MRI findings, and have that patient complaining of pain and numbness, tingling, etc., the doctor attributes the symptoms to the structural changes shown on the MRI. A surgeon will want to fix the problem by operating.

However, studies have shown that many people with significant findings on MRI have no symptoms, while many people with rather insignificant findings on MRI have significant complaints.

If the neurological complaints are from CIDP as opposed to any structural changes shown on MRI, surgery will be absolutely useless. Back pain is a common complaint of those with CIDP.