Adhesive arachnoiditis (AA) is an inflammatory disease of the spinal canal in which cauda equina nerve roots become attached by adhesions to the arachnoid-dural (meninges) covering of the spinal canal. 

The Tennant Foundation has established an AA Study Project to accomplish its mission.  This Project sponsors this website which will regularly publish bulletins and chronicles to provide up-to-date information.  Also, on this website we will regularly post letters and answers concerning AA and actual stories of patients who have AA.

BASIC FACTS ABOUT AA

  • Although an old disease, AA is being identified in every community in great part due to the modern, contrast technology of magnetic resonance imaging.
  • Although the precise prevalence of AA is not known, we estimate that about 1.75 to 2.75 million adults in the United States have AA.  The majority of these persons are currently misdiagnosed with non-specific diagnoses such as “Failed Back Syndrome”, “Deteriorated Spine”, or “Radiculopathy.
  • AA results from severe trauma of multiple factors including genetic connective tissue disease, autoimmune-collagen disorders, and accidental chemical contamination during epidural injections or spinal taps.
  • AA has four categories or stages of severity: mild, moderate, severe, catastrophic.
  • AA is a progressive disease that when uncontrolled causes multiple neurologic impairments, exhaustive immobility, intractable pain, and premature death due to cardiac or adrenal failure often with sepsis.
  • Since no specific pharmacologic agent has been developed for AA, medical treatment protocols designed to provide relief and slow progression have been developed and are found in Bulletins posted on this website and in books published by this Project.
  • The pain generated by AA may exceed all others and require the most potent, effective analgesics and electromedical therapies.  AA when coupled with genetic connective tissue and/or autoimmune collagen diseases is now the most common cause of the Intractable Pain Syndrome.  There are Chronicles posted on this website that address this syndrome.

Tennant Foundation Board

President

Forest Tennant

Vice President

Miriam Tennant

Secretary                   

Kathy Clark

Treasurer

James Hetzel

Medical Director

Martin J Porcelli, D.O., PhD

Board Chairman

Jerry Muszynski

Board Members

Doran Barnes

Steve Castillo

Sander De Wildt

Brad Manning

Don Scheliga

Vicki Scheliga

Tony Song

Ken Yoho

Advisors and Advocates

Terri Anderson

Lynn Ashcraft

Donna Corley

Kimree Donovan, MD

Anne Fuqua

K. Scott Guess, Pharm.D

Ryle Holder, Pharm D

Ingrid Hollis

Adam Hy, DO

Nancy Kriskovich

Denise Molohon

Kristen Ogden

Rhonda Posey

Tina Schofield

Gary Snook