Surgical Approaches

The open incision approaches are the conventional surgical approaches for TOS used by the high-volume TOS experts in the United States and in most other countries.  Even though robotic and/or minimally invasive surgical approaches are regularly used today with respect to many other medical specialties and other medical procedures, they are not regularly used for TOS and are still currently considered investigational.  There have been quite a number of subjective reports of very serious complications resulting from these surgical approaches.  This is in part, at a minimum, due to lack of TOS surgical experience of the surgeons who use these approaches.  However, there have also been reports of robot malfunctioning and a potential for long-term chronic nerve pain issues as a result of needing to enter the rib cage through the intercostal spaces.