What Conditions can Tarlov Cysts Mimic?

I’m not sharing this to give a comprehensive list of every possible symptom, but rather, to show examples of symptoms that can cause a patient to spend years not being treated for the proper condition.

Depending on where a patient’s cysts are located, they can mimic many other physical conditions that will often complicate their journey in figuring out that their symptoms are actually from a neurological disease, versus another systemic disease in various organs.

During this time, a patient may feel like they are being dismissed because of depression or other mental conditions, because when those effected organs are tested, there is nothing wrong with them.

They can go from “ologist” to “ologist” for years, or even decades, before being properly diagnosed, and many times that’s after their symptoms have become catastrophic.

When Symptomatic Tarlov Cyst Disease is discovered earlier, it’s much easier to prevent it from progressing to a catastrophic stage. Through surgery and/or certain protocols that reduce neural inflammation, pain and symptoms, patients can have better quality of life.

This is a list of some conditions that TCs can mimic in symptoms. Everyone who experiences any of these symptoms needs to have the effected organs tested, to make sure it’s not actually the organ, but when each condition has been ruled out, it’s important for clinicians to not dismiss these patients. There can be another reason for their symptoms, such as a TC.

Cervical and Thoracic TCs

Heart attack - Patients can feel like they’re having a heart attack. The chest pain is real and it can often cause their BP to rise and pulse to increase. This can be from both the nerve compression, and because of the pain and fear that they’re actually having a heart attack. This condition is called Cervical Angina, and is caused by the nerve compression from the TC.

Stroke - A patient’s face, or parts of it, can go numb and mimic a stroke.

Breathing difficulties - They can have episodes of breathing difficulties, sometimes lasting weeks or even months, yet their heart and lungs test great. Sometimes the symptoms can be positional, such as lying down. This can disrupt sleep and be quite distressing.

Fibromyalgia and other Autoimmune Diseases - These are very common misdiagnosis, as many symptoms mimic each other.

For cervical and thoracic cysts, a good dermatome chart is important because each level affects different organs and systems in the body. A TC can not only affect the nerve root where the cyst is located but it can also cause compression to the nerves above and below.

It’s also important to note that size is not a determining factor for a cyst being symptomatic. What matters is if it is causing nerve compression.

Some patients with large cysts in their sacrum don’t experience as many symptoms as someone with a small cyst in their cervical or thoracic spine, because the sacrum has much more room to expand, without causing compression, than the higher spaces have.

Lumbar and Sacral TCs

UTI, and/or bladder retention or incontinence - These are very common symptoms, almost universal to sacral TC patients.

GI, and/or Bowel issues - patients often feel as if they are “sitting on a rock” and can experience many types of bowel and rectal issues.

Sexual Dysfunction - There are many gynecological symptoms that can be experienced or in men, erectile dysfunction.

As I said, this is not a comprehensive list of all symptoms, by any means, but it gives physicians, and patients, an idea of how long it can take to find the actual source of symptoms, because of all of the various “ologists” that a patient must consult with, to rule out all of the other possible causes.