Quote:
Originally Posted by mspennyloafer
hi nospam, this may seem like a silly question but do you think anything in particular gave you the scar tissue? i always associate it with accidents and operations
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nospam
My theory is that my brachial plexus has been rubbing across the 1st rib for years, forming the scar tissue and eventually fusing to the rib. I think the root of all of this with me is rib subluxations and nothing to do with my scalenes (which is why the scalene block didn't work).
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I saw Dr. Angle yesterday. He's impressed with my progress and said I'm probably a week ahead of any of his prior patients. He's cleared me to return to PT and we are planning to repeat the surgery on my right side at the end of May.
He did not agree with my theory that the neural adhesions were caused by the plexus rubbing across the 1st rib. He stated that the adhesions were likely just a result of years of chronic neural inflammation and edema. He said that my costoclavicular space was extremely tight. He said he was able to remove 100% of the 1st rib giving me plenty of space now!
While I do believe the supraclavicular rib resection with full scalenectomy is the most complete "single" procedure available today, it wasn't a viable option for me geographically (I did not want to travel by air to select a surgeon).
I firmly believe the transaxillary rib resection with partial scalanectomy was the right procedure for my case. We don't think I will need full sclalenectomy down the road because there was no scalene hypertrophy. With Dr. Angle's minimally invasive transaxillary approach (with arthroscope) and my rapid recovery progress, its hard to argue otherwise.
There is no one size fits all surgery/treatment for TOS. So please don't take my experience as the TOS gospel as all of our cases likely differ.