I just decided to have surgery with him. I've searched and seen a couple posts but didn't see that anybody has actually had a surgery with him.

He's said he's done over 100 supraclavicular rib resections w/ scalenectomy and never had to do a revision.

Anyone?

100 of those surgeries over what time frame, or how many avg per year, was that mentioned?
Haven't seen his name mentioned here much at all, so I don't have any other input.

I haven't found much info on him. Cigna's portal says he is 53 years old with 27 years experience. His education is prestigious, Vanderbilt for Med School and Stanford for Residency.

http://www.visoc.org/ballard.php
http://www.sjo.org/documents/10-SJH-...tter-Final.pdf

I will vouch that St. Jo's Orange and Mission Viejo are top notch (request a private room and hope you get one).

Yep, let's hope that prestigious education relates well to my operation.

As for the frequency, it wasn't mentioned but he said that he thinks he does many of the thoracic outlet procedures of orange county.

He said that it wasn't necessary to come in again for a pre-op, since my surgery date is may 20, but I insisted because I want a relative to join me for an appointment.

Don't forget to write down your questions so you don't forget anything Friday.

I saw Dr. Ballard back in the day (2008). He was at St. Joe's in Orange. I noticed the same credentials mentioned by Nospam. At the time I was deciding whether to try to get work comp or not. He said not to get surgery through work comp. He said I would get fiddle-fu*ked around by the work comp doctors. I saw him one time and he wanted to schedule surgery the next week. I asked him if I would be able to surf again and he said he had done the surgery on a UCLA waterpolo player and he was doing very well again.
At the time, I was afraid to get my rib removed and opted to try the pec minor surgery with Dr. Sanders in Colorado (did nothing for me).

For some reason, I think he worked with the Dr. in the San Frisco area who does the supraclavicular approach and that is where he learned it. I also recall some people reporting bad experiences with the surgery from the Dr. in San Fran. I'm sure all Dr.'s have some bad outcomes. However, I have not heard any bad expreiences about him.

I'm sure he is a very capable surgeon and has good experience with this surgery. Please keep us posted on your recovery.

--- best of luck to you. I hope you have an awesome recovery.