i think it was jane (hello, jane, where are you?) who said TOS is simply not as rare as "they" would have us believe....

but i personally also think it important to keep in mind here, as we read these studies, that just because a human being may have an anatomic anomaly in the thoracic outlet, does NOT mean that TOS is going to develop or become symptomatic, even, in that human's lifetime.

a perfect example of this is cervical ribs. the oft-quoted statistic there is, i think, only 1% of the general population is born with an "extra" set of so-called C-ribs, and out of that only a mere 1% sub-set ever develops any signs of TOS. (someone will correct me if i'm off on the %'s, but you get the point i'm trying to make, i'm sure.)

so i would propose, then, that one would have to go back and look into the medical histories of the living, breathing persons who once inhabited those cadavers for a closer and very hard look, in order to extrapolate the "real" numbers out of a study like the one posted here...

otherwise the study is sort of meanlingless, at least to me. interesting, yes. just doesn't tell me much of anything. i don't know if i'm making any sense here mind you, just thinking out loud (trying not to hurt myself!).

and of course, this is just my four cents. it used to be two cents, but inflation, you know!...

this also reminds me of the scalenus minimus "debate." dr. ahn swears to me that almost EVERYONE is born with an extra scalene muscle. other top TOS docs, i think anyway, put the % much lower, somewhere around 33.3%, i believe? who the heck knows; i just know i hurt! dr. annest didn't find no extra scalene in my neck when he cut me open, although he fully expected to. he did find my anterior and my middle scalene muscles to be v e r y large - no big surprise there; they've been in severe spasm for decades now. whatever, whatever. now they have to get yanked out entirely i guess, byebye!!(!)

alison