title: Two-surgeon approach to thoracic outlet syndrome: long-term outcome.
abstract: An orthopaedic surgeon and a vascular surgeon jointly conducted 30 operations for thoracic outlet syndrome in 27 patients, having done the preoperative assessments in conjunction with a neurologist. Anterior scalenectomy was performed by the supraclavicular route except in one case where the infraclavicular route was used. The further surgical procedure was tailored to the abnormalities identified--i.e. resection of cervical rib or band, or medial scalenectomy. The first rib was spared. At median follow-up of 37 months (range 3-228) results were judged excellent or good on 26/30 sides (87%); on the three occasions when scalenectomy alone was performed, the results were only fair or poor. There were no major complications and no patient required reoperation. The long-term outcome in this series suggests that, with multidisciplinary assessment and two-surgeon operative treatment, good results can be obtained by the supraclavicular route without resection of the first rib.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, King's Mill Centre for Healthcare Services (NHS Trust), UK.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sharan
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moulton
authors.forename: G H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Greatrex
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Das
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Whiteley
authors.forename: V M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Srivastava
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009985:Orthopedics; D013901:Thoracic Outlet Syndrome / Q000601:surgery*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014656:Vascular Surgical Procedures