Chiari Malformation

[Michellee]

Just doing an update to an earlier post I think I posted a year or two ago. I wanted to see if anyone lately or last year or so got rated by the VA for this condition and how the VA treats it. My hubby got believes he acquired his condition through a traumatic event that hit his head after falling off of an duece truck in service. Well he has never applied for a rating but would like to pursue this condition as it is causing him alot of problems. His brain has shifted down into his neck area and they have told him that it would required brain surgery to fix. He has not come to grips I think with the whole sitiuation nor has elected to do any surgery to his brain. He has the WHAT IFs and I can't say I blame him there. So if any of you have ever applied and received a rating I would like to get an idea of how difficult it was or what kind rating. Since it is considered a rare condition I wonder if the VA is accurate in their rating scheme or how the ratings are applied accordingly. My hubby was doing alot of research on the condition has stopped about six months ago when since has become very depressed over this diagnoses via MRI. He helps me so much with my mobile limitations and medications and daily living, even when I fell into the bottomless pit of dispair he saved my life I couple of times in the past. I don't know what I would do with out him. So I am trying to help anyway I can. Thanks ahead of time for any input.

Edited April 6, 2011 by Michellee

[Berta]

Although a brief search I did at BVA shows that VA considers this condition as congenital,there is also some medical thought that it could be caused by trauma.

http://www.braininjurylawblog.com/about-brain-injuries-chiari-malformation-4.html

Also this link states:

“Although its presence is a common and usually incidental finding on neuroimaging or neuropathological studies, an association of the cavum septum pellucidum with boxers was first noted incidentally in 1962.[72] The condition has been repeatedly associated with chronic TBI in boxing, on the basis of neuroimaging or postmortem studies. It is likely that a cavum septum pellucidum in boxers is acquired rather than being congenital and results from rotational injuries that lead to tearing and separation of the septum pellucidum.[51] It has also been implicated in other types of brain trauma, such as those sustained in fatal road traffic accidents.[61] “

from:http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/553964_3

This article only focuses on Chiari Malformations Type One as there are different forms of chiari.

If there is any possibility that a neurologist can associate your husband's type of chiari as directly stemming from the inservice accident -with no other possible etiology- there would be possibility of service connection but that would depend on how soon symptoms of this condition were documented,proof of the accident and a very strong medical linkage.

This type of IMO could be very costly and not result in anything that VA would accept.

You could search the BVA web site to see if,in fact, others have been SCed for this condition and why- but it seems VA hinges on the medical basis that it is congenital.