Surgery with dr Gharagazloo
 

Hi Guys:)

As promised, here is the update. The CT scan and MRA showed severe compression of arteries and veins, so I guess double crush.

Surgery is coming in a few weeks. Dr G does robotic surgery and he will only be removing part of the rib. I will have 3 small incisions and recovery is about 2 weeks.

I will be lurking around more as I have to stop working due to the excruciating pain I've been in lately.

Any questions, feel free to ask.

Wait, are you also having a scalenectomy?

Dr G does not remove any muscles. Only the part of the rib that is compressing the artery and vein.

What if it grows back? Especially since it's only part of it.... Just asking. Two weeks sounds nice.

I can hardly work either. Sucks! I like money.

Just wondering do u have to have the subclavian artery or vein repaired or a BP Neurolysis?

Not taking the whole rib?? :confused:
My concerns would be,
possible regrowth of leaving parts of the rib
and
the fact that ends/stumps will be there rubbing on surrounding tissues, possibly causing scar tissue /adhesions.
I'd ask about that..

How many of these does he do a year?

Seems like a fantastic option for ntos. Especially the sort where they don't want to do surgery because the risks are viewed as too high and/or you can't take off three months of work per side...

If the recovery is that quick, it should be less since it is less invasive and therefore scar tissue growth from surgery should be less.

Makes sense.

Also, if it grows back, just do it again?

Dr G has done TOS surgeries for about 30 years and he is the first one to do robotics. I trust 100% that he knows what he is doing and not worried about regrowth as the part of the rib that he is removing is an extra joint that I was born with where the rib connects to the sternum. So what he is actually removing is not the loose end of the rib but the part under the chest. I do not see why that would regrow but if it does I guess we will handle it when we get there.

His approach is totally different approach than conventional TOS surgery. He used to do the armpit and neck incisions but the success rate is 50/50 with those surgeries as you can't reach the sternum part that way. He has over 140 research papers on this, feel free to read them.

Interesting, is the extra joint why you have TOS?

Where will you incision be?

Yes, the extra joint is why I have the TOS. I will have 3 incisions across the chest, one under the breast, one in the back and one in the middle of the chest.