Thank you for all the replies!

Sea Pines: I think you are correct regarding the transaxillary approach. I appreciate your thoughtful and informative response.

I just recently read this:
The advantage of this approach is that it gives the surgeon easy access to the first rib, artery and vein and lower brachial plexus without disturbing the rest of the brachial plexus. It also means the surgeon has limited access to the areas of the upper nerves and muscles.

It sounds like the transax approach was the right way to go in your situation.

Regarding neurolysis, I think I misunderstood the term initially. It appears "neurolysis" is used loosely to refer to both external neurolysis and internal neurolysis. Seems internal neurolysis is rarely done/needed, although I *wonder* if this step is especially important for NTOS outcomes. Perhaps I'll start another thread to gather opinions on this...

thanks again -

Hello did the neurolysis help? I was wondering if i help get the nerves to innervate the muscles.


Thanks,

Jeff

Welcome jmfriedman1982.

Quite possibly that is one of the goals of this procedure. Unfortunately, it is impossible to say, in my case, whether the neurolysis helped or not, because just a few weeks after my TOS surgery I had an accident at home which compromised the outcome…

If you're talking about reinnervating muscles which had atrophied as a result of nerve compression caused by TOS, that is another story. As of right now, I don't believe there is a way to bring those muscles back to health. But, what with stem cell research and other areas of medical/scientific development, who knows what the future may hold?

And as to the nerves themselves, I've been told that you should never give up on them, no matter how badly compressed they may have been! Once the source of compression has been identified and removed, there is always hope that the nerve will be restored, in time, to a healthy state.

Alison