Quote:
Originally Posted by kellysf
I had surgery with Dr. Avery in 2005 and I came out worse as a result. He was very professional and thorough in his explanation of the surgery, risks, etc. He claimed to make 85% of his patients better. I spoke with him once after my surgery failed and he told me he was having better luck with surgery because he was picking his patients more carefully. I asked if this meant I shouldn't have had surgery in the first place; he didn't respond.
Did I understand you correctly, that Dr. Avery is now saying surgery is tending to make people worse, not better? I would tend to agree based on my observations on this board, but I'm surprised that Dr. Avery may have reached that conclusion.
When I first started reading about TOS in 2003, most doctors claimed that 1/3 of the people improved with surgery, 1/3 stayed the same and 1/3 got worse. A few years later, the success rate jumped from 33% to 85%. It was never clear to me what changed to justify that huge change in surgical success. Over time, though, it seems like the 1/3 rule is closer to reality for neurogenic TOS patients than the 85% figure. Good luck with whatever you decide. Please keep us posted. I'd love to hear if Dr. Avery's thoughts on surgery have evolved.
Take care,
Kelly
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Kelly,
What he said was that to get to the surgery area he would need to lift/move nerves and doing that is similar to moving and repeatedly touching hot electrical wiring in your home. An electrician turns off the breakers before they work on the area yet there is no off switch for our already damaged nerves.
If we are at the point of searching out a TOS surgeon our nerves are a mess. They already send wrong signals all the time.
It does sound like patients like you who were made worse by surgery made him much more cautious.
I left my appointment feeling like a huge burden of am I losing my mind had been lifted but without a solution.