Hello.
My wife and I will be visiting the states in a few months and since TOS surgeries in Israel are very rare we would like to meet with a couple of surgeons in the states for a consult and see if we can schedule a surgery.

We don't care in which state as we are going to be in both sides (NY & CA) and the flight to the states is long enough so another flight wouldn't change much...

We have some names that we gathered around but we would love to hear first hand recommendations without a biasing list of surgeons.

I would appreciate any comments.
Thank you.

Dr. Dean Donahue at Massachusetts General Hospital is my doctor who I can't speak highly enough of. Look him up on these threads, he has quite a few patients who like him a lot. He does about one TOS surgery a week, and works with people long distance. If you give his office a call they can give you details on how they handle the long distance cases; I think that they try to optimize/minimize the number of trips needed.

He's great, I'd recommend that you put him on the short list.

From my research here is my short list for traveling patients.

Dr. Dean Donahue, Massachusetts
Dr. Gregory Pearl, Dallas, TX
Dr. Charles Brantigan, Denver, CO

These are among the best of the best and are equipped to treat out of town patients.

I live out of state from dr donahue and he was accessible by phone and they were very accomodating at Mass Gen.

QUOTE=nospam;974767]From my research here is my short list for traveling patients.

Dr. Dean Donahue, Massachusetts
Dr. Gregory Pearl, Dallas, TX
Dr. Charles Brantigan, Denver, CO

These are among the best of the best and are equipped to treat out of town patients.[/QUOTE]

Since this is my first post, they won't let me include hyperlinks. But if you go to this website ** there's a link to doctors that are recommended for surgical decompression surgery for TOS.

The website is courtesy of Dr. James D. Collins, a radiologist/doctor at UCLA. Dr. Collins a specialist in the diagnosis of Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. Most of the surgeons are in California, but some other states are included as well.

For my part, I can recommend Dr. Hugh Gelabert at UCLA. He's a wonderful surgeon (I've had bilateral first rib resections) and as doctors go, he's an extremely good listener.

Best of luck to you.

Hugh Gelabert is one of the best. He one of the surgeons I've consulted and is the mentor of my surgeon, Dr. Niren Angle. However UCLA is a slow moving system and I would not recommend anyone trying to navigate it from out of town.

Hi There-
Besides the ones already listed is Dr. Thompson at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis He is one of the top and most experienced and does alot of out of town patients.Dr. Pearl is a protege of Dr. Thompson. From what I've heard Dr. Thompson is very thorough. I have met Dr. Gelabart at UCLA and like him alot-but dont know how set up he is for out of towners. I would research them all on the internet and see what their out of town protocols are. Some of them use different techniques also.

A while back I was in contact with a Dr. in Israel. I had asked him some questions about a paper he wrote. Dr. Rochlis? He seemed very knowledgeble.
I will try to find it for you-
JKL

I'll add a recommendation for Dr. Donahue. I've had nothing but positive experiences with him through my left side re-sectioning, and I'll be returning to him soon for a matching procedure on the right.

Thank you all.
We will keep you posted on any development.

Thanks again.

Just wanted to add my two cents for Dr. Donahue at MGH and the teams of nurses and other specialists. Dr. D did three surgeries on me last year, and the care I received before and after each one was pretty amazing. It's been a long road, but I certainly would do it all over again with Dr D. Please don't hesitate to message me for more information!