Originally Posted by parbie

Dr. Angle called me directly from his cell after I left a message with his office and faxed over my paperwork. I explained my symptoms, history and asked my questions and spoke with him for at least a half hour. He also told me to call back anytime if I had any more questions. Very few doctors do this, and I liked that alone because it means he is easily reachable and available for post-surgery recovery (which will evidently be lengthy). This factor is also important to me since I am going to be doing surgery out of state. So here are all the answers to the questions I asked him:
-10-11 years experience, has done 75 to 100 TOS surgeries to date
-could not tell me his success rate for nTOS because he says he is very selective with those cases and was unsure, but he said he has no recurrent cases
-Trained at UCLA
-Transaxillary approach (his preference for this is because you get 2 incisions the supraclavicular approach, he said if you have the experience, the approach is not more difficult)
-would completely remove the cervical and first ribs, and a partial scalenectomy with the anterior and median scalenes, and neurolysis of the brachial plexus (which he said less than 5% of patients need)
-said nTOS patients do not get complete relief as often because there is usually a lot of trauma involved and other diagnoses like fibromyalgia
-said I have classic identifiable symptoms, 90% of the diagnosis is made by the clinical exam, but would have me do an MRI venogram (one last test)
-3 to 6 months before operating on the other side
-has not seen anyone with Pec minor syndrome and feels the diagnosis is “questionable”
-surgery would be 2 hours, would be hospitalized for 1 to 2 nights, off work for at least 4 weeks, physical therapy begins 4 to 6 weeks after
Overall, I really liked Dr. Angle. He was very easy to talk to, kind and understanding, and definitely very experienced and knowledgeable.

Originally Posted by nospam

Great research.

I would add that while Dr. Gelabert is very caring and thorough, he is very busy with his teaching and relies on an assistant. He wanted me to have a repeat scalene block and SSEP test and said his assistant would handle scheduling (he gave me a copy of the referral he typed up for her). When I hadn't heard back after 2 weeks I called her and she stated she was waiting on dictation from him(?). I ended up faxing my copy of the order directly to the neurologist so they could inquire with his office as to the holdup. It was another 2 weeks before someone called me to schedule an appointment for testing. I can't imagine trying to deal with Gelabert's office long distance like you may be. I just didn't have the patience and other doctors didn't believe repeating the scalene block and performing SSEP was necessary in my case.

I think that a return to work after only 2 weeks is simply ridiculous. 3 months is much more realistic.

Originally Posted by nospam

Reachability was a huge factor in my surgeon selection. After finding Dr. Angle, I did not find it necessary to travel for surgery.

My surgeries with Dr. Angle were closer to 3 hours as they required neurolysis. However, I am a pretty sturdy guy and my recovery has been pretty fast. I only had 5 weeks between surgeries and only spent 24 hours in the hospital post-op each time.

In your position, I would definitely give the Denver guys a close look (I had planned to see Brantigan before choosing Angle). Urschel appears to be promising as well.

Originally Posted by Limoges

You can't completely remove the median scalene muscle because the long thoracic nerve runs through it.