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Median Arcuate Ligament Syndrome (MALS)

Digestive Health | Last Active: May 6 8:00am | Replies (1159)

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@jayson

Hello ALL. So had my appointment last week with my Vascular Surgeon (Jenny Cho). First off Dr. Cho was very professional and was understanding. She went over my symptoms and decided to do a CT Scan. She looked over my ULTRASOUND and believes that since my open release in 2019 that my Celiac Artery has possibly closed. Either by scar tissue, or by the inner part of the artery is damaged. Along with my initial issue I was also diagnosed with May Thunder Syndrome. So Dr Cho stated depending on the severity of the artery she thought a stent would be a good option, and possibly a bypass. My question I would ask. Has anyone had a stent or a bypass and if so which one would be better than the other. Also, does anyone have May Thunder Syndrome?

Thanks

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Replies to "Hello ALL. So had my appointment last week with my Vascular Surgeon (Jenny Cho). First off..."

There is a woman on the MALS Pals group on Facebook, Robin Schrader, who has had a similar experience of open surgery (2 actually) followed by the artery collapsing from years of compression. I believe she had stents done and then a bypass or is waiting for a bypass. I would think they need to figure out if you have re-compression from scar tissue before deciding what to do (hopefully CTA will show what's going on). If you have re-compression you'll probably need another surgery (just what happened to me) because a stent would likely fail. If the artery has failed but there is no compression then a stent is a great option and would avoid another surgery.

Unfortunately I know nothing about May Turner but it is discussed quite a bit on the MALS groups on Facebook.

@jayson - I had a stent placed 6 months after surgery to release the ligament. The artery had remained in the compressed shape. Before the stent placement, the surgeon explained that if the stent fails the next step would be open bypass.
6 years later the stent is still working. The deformed artery has put a little pressure on the stent, but it has remained functional.