Thanks for the quick reply, Jo*mar. I have answers to your questions below in red. His particular case is as follows: last July he was admitted with a swollen/tight left arm and had clot-busting done for many small clots in his arm. A stent was put in place (the vein was a congenitally thin one and was causing the problem). They put him on Coumadin and an anti-coagulant. They wanted to try this approach in hopes that a rib removal could be averted down the road. A few weeks ago his surgeon did a follow-up sonogram and stated that the stent looked fine. He is going in today to have a veinogram(sic?) done as well. As luck would have it, a few days ago he said that it was starting to feel a little tight in the arm again. I am just trying to be pro-active at this point and look for surgeons who are skilled in this in case it comes down to this surgery. I do realize that the type of TOS that he has has fairly decent results (if a good surgeon is used). There was NEVER any pain involved with this. Just some tightness/swelling and a slight reddening. I did look up and found the MLB Texas Rangers players who had surgery for this. One of my co-workers is married to a girl who is in charge of a string of hospitals out here and has a co-worker who had the exact same surgery last year(successfull). I am getting the name of his surgeon and will speak to him as well. Thanks again!!