@vivianne777 As both of these links describe, spinal cord compression (stenosis) in the neck can cause pain in other parts of the body and commonly the legs. Many surgeons miss this and don't connect the symptoms with this problem. I my case 5 surgeons missed it, and therefore would not help me. All of them could see the stenosis on the MRI, but they feared a poor outcome so they passed on my case. You can use this literature to discuss this with your surgeon. I don't know if that will help. If not, it may be best to see a surgeon who understands funicular pain. I found my surgeon at Mayo because when I saw the term "funicular pain" in his co-authored literature, I looked it up and realized my case was like this literature and I asked him for help. That was the best decision I could make. He was excellent and I no longer suffer.

At this link, you can find this information about "funicular pain":
https://www.spine-health.com/conditions/neck-pain/types-neck-pain
"Funicular pain tends to present as an achy, throbbing, or cold feeling in one of the limbs, such as a leg, or in the trunk of the body. It can also feel electric shock-like and similar to radicular pain (sciatica) going down the leg. Sometimes funicular pain is experienced when the neck is flexed forward, known as Lhermitte’s phenomenon, and results in a searing pain that can travel down the spine and/or into the arms or legs"

I had all the symptoms this describes including the electric shocks when I bent my neck forward when I had stenosis present prior to spine surgery.

Here is the medical literature I found that was a turning point in my case in finding a surgeon willing to help me (which I found at Mayo). At that time, there was very little published online about it and it was described as a "rare presentation" of symptoms.

Eur Spine J. 2011 Jul; 20(Suppl 2): 217–221.
Published online 2010 Oct 13. doi: 10.1007/s00586-010-1585-5
PMCID: PMC3111492
PMID: 20938789
"Cervical cord compression presenting with sciatica-like leg pain"
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3111492/
As the spine-health link describes, you can have different types of pain at the same time acting on the spine. That tends to confuse the diagnosis when they cannot pinpoint the cause when several things may overlap and cause it. They cannot prove that you have funicular pain with a test, and the proof is when spinal cord decompression with surgery fixes that pain. That was my experience. I do believe this is more common than the surgeons believe because I talk to so many patients with cervical spinal cord compression who have sciatic pain. I did not have any other sources causing my pain as the nerve roots were not affected, and there was only one level of the spinal cord affected by a collapsed C5/C6 disc that formed bone spurs inside the central spinal canal.

I also experienced weakness and drop foot intermittently, sciatic pain, numbness, and tingling in my legs. The one thing that is a predictor of the possibility of funicular pain is when an epidural spinal injection takes away the pain. I had that experience too with one of the surgeons who later refused to help me. He didn't understand why the epidural took away all my pain, so he ignored the results. I think he thought it was supposed to prove otherwise as he wanted to assign the leg pain to a lumbar spine problem. Since my cervical surgery, I do not have sciatic pain at all and it has been several years.

The vascular study your surgeon wants is a good idea to rule out symptoms that could be caused by circulation. If circulation issues are found, he may not be able to distinguish those symptoms from spine generated pain. If they are not found, he'll be back to wondering why there is sciatic pain. He may not change his opinion about the neck not being a cause because he would have to admit he missed something if he is wrong. You may want to research some other surgeons now in case you need another opinion. If you can go to Mayo, my surgeon, Jeremy Fogelson, is very familiar with funicular pain and the success of my surgery that represented symptoms solely caused by funicular pain that he fixed only by freeing the spinal cord.

As I read through this entire discussion and that you've mentioned that possibly cervical vertebrae need to be removed, I'm not sure if you mean the entire vertebrae bones. For that you should see a spine deformity specialist and I know that my surgeon, Dr. Fogelson, has the expertise and knowledge that could really help you. Please reach out to me with any questions. I am convinced that the severe cervical stenosis is causing other symptoms with the legs. I can't make that diagnosis as I am not a doctor, but your description is a classic example of how this gets overlooked by surgeons. Cervical stenosis causes unsteady and uneven gaits when walking, balance problems, and bladder and bowel control problems that can progress to permanent incontinence if the spinal cord remains compressed. It took me 2 years and 6 surgical opinions until I found the right one with #6 at Mayo. I would have done the surgery much sooner, but no surgeon would help me until I got to Mayo. This is why I share my story.

Jennifer