Chiari Clinic

Your Journey

Every person who finds this page arrived here from a different place.

Some received an unexpected finding on a scan ordered for something else entirely. Some have been living with unexplained symptoms for years without a name for them. Some have a diagnosis and no idea what comes next. Some are weighing one of the most consequential decisions of their lives. And some have made their peace with a condition they will carry indefinitely — and are learning what living well alongside it actually looks like.

Chiari malformation does not arrive the same way twice. Neither does the path through it.

What follows is not a protocol or a checklist. It is a set of starting points — one for each place a person might be standing when they find this website. Find the description that feels most like yours. Everything you need from that point forward is there.

Room 1 — Radiographic Diagnosis

My scan found something — what does it mean?

You were not looking for this. An MRI ordered for headaches, or a fall, or something unrelated came back with a finding you were not prepared for. The radiologist report used words you had to look up. Your doctor may have said it is probably nothing — or may have said very little at all. You are here because probably nothing does not feel like enough of an answer.

This is the place to begin making sense of what your imaging actually shows, what it may or may not mean for your health, and what questions are worth asking next.

Make sense of your scan

Room 2 — Clinical Diagnosis

I have symptoms but no diagnosis yet

You have been living with something that does not have a name yet. Headaches that worsen when you strain or cough. Numbness. Balance that is not quite right. Fatigue that no one has been able to explain. You may have seen multiple physicians and been told everything is normal, or been given diagnoses that never quite fit. You are here because you have not stopped looking for an answer that actually makes sense of what you are experiencing.

This is the place to explore whether what you are experiencing could have a structural explanation — and what it would take to find out.

Understand your symptoms

Room 3 — Treatment Options

I have a Chiari diagnosis — what now?

You have a name for it now. You expected that to feel like clarity. Instead it feels like a door that opened just enough to show you another door. Your neurologist said to monitor it. Your primary care physician referred you onward. The neurosurgeon had a long wait. No one has given you a map for what follows a diagnosis, or explained what monitoring actually means in practice, or told you what you should be paying attention to in the meantime.

This is the place to understand what a Chiari diagnosis actually means for your specific situation — and what a thoughtful, informed next step looks like.

Understand your options

Room 4 — Surgical Evaluation

Considering surgery — how do I decide?

You have reached the question that everything else has been building toward. Surgery for Chiari can be genuinely transformative. It can also be the wrong choice for the wrong patient at the wrong time. You are trying to understand which of those is true for you — and you are discovering that the answer is not as straightforward as you hoped, and that the people around you may not be equipped to help you think it through with the clarity the decision deserves.

This is the place to understand what the surgical decision actually turns on — the clinical factors, the honest range of outcomes, and the questions worth bringing to any neurosurgeon before agreeing to anything irreversible.

Think through the decision

Room 5 — Living with Chiari

Living with Chiari — how do I move forward?

You have been told, or have concluded, that surgery is not the right step for you right now. What no one adequately explained is what comes next — what living well with Chiari actually requires, what you should be watching for, what would change the picture, and where to find the people and the specialists who can support you in this phase with genuine knowledge rather than generic reassurance.

This is the place to find what you actually need: practical guidance for living well with Chiari, professional resources for finding the right specialist, and communities of people who know exactly what this feels like.

Find what you need

Not sure which description fits?

Start at the beginning. Or start where something caught your attention. There is no wrong entry point — only the one that feels most like where you are.

For Physicians and Referrers

Referring a patient with a Chiari finding or suspected CM-I? Cerbo Clinic accepts most major insurance plans and offers prompt consultation appointments. Referral information and contact details at cerboclinic.com.

Refer a patient →

Nothing on this site constitutes a physician-patient relationship or medical advice. Individual cases require individualized evaluation by a board-certified specialist.

Chiari Clinic · An Independent Chiari Reference · A program of Cerbo Clinic Neurosurgery · Peninsula and Bay Area