Wilke, W S · Cleveland Clinic journal of medicine · 2001 · DOI
This review article examines whether surgery can cure fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). The author concludes that surgery is not an effective treatment for these conditions. This is important because some patients and providers have explored surgical approaches, but the evidence does not support this as a cure.
This review is important because it provides guidance against pursuing surgical interventions for ME/CFS, which could otherwise lead patients to undergo unnecessary procedures with associated risks and costs. It helps establish that ME/CFS is not a condition amenable to surgical correction, reinforcing the need for non-surgical management approaches.
This review does not provide a comprehensive systematic analysis of all surgical studies in these populations, nor does it address whether specific surgical procedures might provide symptomatic relief in subsets of patients. The evidence level (E3) indicates this is expert opinion rather than high-quality empirical evidence, so it should not be considered definitive proof.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Wilke, W S (2001). Can fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome be cured by surgery?. Cleveland Clinic journal of medicine. https://doi.org/10.3949/ccjm.68.4.277
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-wilke-2001-can-fibromyalgia,
author = {Wilke, W S},
title = {Can fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome be cured by surgery?},
journal = {Cleveland Clinic journal of medicine},
year = {2001},
doi = {10.3949/ccjm.68.4.277},
note = {PubMed: 11326806},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/wilke-2001-can-fibromyalgia},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/wilke-2001-can-fibromyalgia
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