Would be wonderful if they could go through the arm and stent the artery. I'd assume that something like this would only be done if they were 100% confident that the compression was non-existent at this point. The standard operating procedure seems to be a) Remove decompression via removal of cervical rib/scalenectomy, and b) Repairing the artery.

I just found this on the Washington University site concerning the axillary artery:

"A second form of arterial TOS affects the distal axillary artery, beyond the level of the first rib near the shoulder. This form results in either aneurysmal or occlusive lesions, and is a unique condition that appears to occur almost exclusively in baseball pitchers. These lesions are caused by repetitive compression and stretching of the axillary artery by the head of the humerus, as it moves forward during extremes of arm elevation and extension, as seen in the overhead pitching motion."

I find this interesting because I spent a great deal of time as a youngster in high school and college as a pitcher. Lots of stress on the arm. In addition, I have a bad feeling that the "pullup" movement as part of my training played a part here. It wasn't abnormal for me to do sets of 6 to 10 pullups with 85 lbs dangling from my waist in order to create greater resistance. And, it was a latpulldown injury that set this whole thing in motion 18 months ago.

KY