For people with cranio-cervical instability (CCI), a debilitating condition linked to connective tissue disorders, this surgery can help reduce symptoms. Some doctors say that any patient with multiple complex, interconnected conditions causing debilitating symptoms that doctors struggle to explain should be evaluated for CCI — and that for some of those patients with CCI, surgery may be the only solution. For Bolognese, Irwin’s diagnosis was “a Rosetta Stone moment,” after which he began looking actively for CCI in patients with connective tissue disorders as well as those with the congenital mutation.