Neurological symptoms with TOS?
 

Has anyone suffering from vascular or neurological TOS experienced neurological symptoms along with symptoms of TOS, such as dizziness, vertigo, and tinnitus?

Does TOS in any way affects the blood supply to the head, which in turn might cause these symptoms?

I'm asking this because 6 months before I started to see vasc/neuro TOS symptoms, I had such neurological symptoms as episodes of vertigo and tinnitus in one of the ears. Also, when working with both arms up I would feel dizzy. I went to a neuro who diagnosed me with vertebrobasilar insufficiency.

I still have these symptoms now. Does anyone relate?

Yes, I have had and still at times have these symptoms. I know that in my case, when my subclavian artery gets compressed, my vertebral artery stops flowing causing dizziness. The ear problems I believe are caused by the scm and other tight muscles.

I had a lot of those - I had a bruit sounds and not tinnitus, bruit is the swooshing pulse sounds - I get them when my scalenes/SCM get tight
here's a chart showing more-
http://tos-syndrome.com/newpage12.htm

For 2 years since my TOS symptoms started I'm having sudden tinnitus in one of the ears (never in both) for less than 5 seconds, along with partial hearing loss. I'm not sure anyone has had that or not.

Anyway, in the page Jo*mar gave link to, there are VERTEBRAL ARTERY symptoms listed. Are these symptoms because of neuro or vascular TOS, or both?

My TOS is vascular and neurogenic. I was having dizziness in physical therapy after doing stretches/exercises with my arms raised. I also started experiencing occipital neuralgia and TMJ pain. I later developed ear pain that I originally thought was simply ear infection (I used to have chronic sinus and ear infections). I insisted on antibiotics from my Dr. even though they saw no evidence of ear infection. Of course, the ear pain continued.

My clinical exam showed both neurogenic (left greater than right) and arterial (right greater than left) TOS. I had an MR Angiogram which showed narrowing of the subclavian veins in the hands-up position (left greater than right, complete blockage on the left).

The ear, TMJ, and occipital pain seems to have disappeared on the left side after I had rib resection surgery two weeks ago. I still feel the ear pressure on the right side. I will be having surgery on the right side in 3-4 weeks.

So yes, I believe TOS affects the blood supply to the head, which in turn might cause these symptoms.

Ditto what brmr19 and nospam said. I have had these symptoms as well.

Reducing neck tension by whatever means and shoving my rib down, reduces these symptoms for me.

yes, yes, yes ---- it's all from the tos. I used to get all that stuff too. I was so stubborn about not wanting to quit my job (HEAVY computer use), that I was using my feet for controlling the mouse and had a button in my mouth that I would click to simulate clicking the mouse. I ended up getting TMJ issues. Bottom line, when the neck is tight and muscles in major spasm, it effects the upper extremities, including the face, ears, eyes, tmj, etc. (IMO). Also, when my neck was bad, my left eye (my bad side) used to twitch like a stripper's butt in Vegas.

So glad those days are behind me.

It was my eye doctor who first suspected I had vertebrobasilar insufficiency. This was before my left side became symptomatic with the vascular symptoms about 4 years ago. I have the dizziness, vertigo but not the tinnitus symptoms that you mention. I am hoping that by having the surgery, these other symptoms dissipate.

Like nospam, the symptoms seem to be brought on when I lift the arm up overhead. At times, my cardio workouts seems to trigger the symptoms, too. The right side does not trigger symptoms but the rib was removed 8 years ago and that side is still doing good.

On the left side, my vascular studies have progressively worsened over the years (pre and post-left sided TOS).

The eye twitch was crazy. That stopped after surgery, but I still get tingling in face at times. There still is some issues on the surgery side, but I will ask the doc when I see him in a couple weeks. The main problem is the scm. When I use left arm, I can feel the left side of neck tighten then the symptoms start.

Does anything from https://www.google.com/search?q=scm+massage help?