Median Arcuate Ligament Syndrome (MALS)

@chicken although I did not have laparoscopic the patients I have spoken with have had an overall faster recovery period in regards to incisional pain and hospital recovery; however, the long term recovery was very similar to open in that is was at least 6 months before the whole digestive system and eating returned to normal. Recovery is a very slow process with MALS and when you think about how long you live with the symptoms it is no surprise it would take a considerable amount of time to get functionality back. The biggest challenge after surgery is eating, because you don’t feel pain after eating you tend to overeat (or eat a normal meal) and your body is not use it. The best advice I can give you is to eat small frequent meals for awhile. I hope this helps! Keep asking questions!

I was wondering if anyone who has had the MALS surgery done laparoscopic could give me some information on how their recovery went, how long their hospital stay was, etc? Thank you!

Yes, its a little crazy!!!! My doctor said that many times people have MALS without symptoms so the pain that they are experiencing is from something else entirely. That's why they like to do the whole full GI workup to rule everything else out... Which makes me nervous that my current pain is not from MALS but from something else, so the surgery might be totally pointless...

So many different conditions that come along with this overwhelming

wow 80 percent that is good my vascular doctor gave a 50 percent my doctor also stressed it would cost 100,000 just for th3 surgery and tha5 was 10 years ago. I often wonder if they don’t want to surgery because of the cost and they might not get the money they want.

I had robotic laparoscopic surgery on October 3, 2018. I am almost 60 in good health and no other diagnosis. So far so good. Don’t let laparoscopic fool you. I traded one long incision for 6 small ones. It is a major surgery. I would plan on a 5 to 6 week recovery. Could be shorter or longer.

I know there is others who have had lap robotic surgery and it was successful :). I am just not familiar with it personally.

Each person is different, there have been many success stories. I believe starting with a less invasive approach is always good if your surgeon is familiar with MALS. The recovery can be long and very gradual no matter what approach is taken. Also of you have any other diagnosis, how long you have had the stenosis, the degree of stenosis... there are many factors that contribute to the success rate. I have never regretted my surgeries, each improved my quality of life. I hope this helps some.

Thank you!! I don't really think there is a reason not to do the surgery, because there really isnt anything else to do and I don't want to live like this forever... No one here has gotten the laproscopic robotic surgery?

@chicken, unfortunately there are different theories on the cause of symptoms and more research needs to be done. You are correct it is the ganglion nerves. If your surgeon is familiar with this technique and has a good success rate that is first hurdle. There are many sucess stories that we in MALS Pals and here never hear about, so keep that in mind when you are reading through patient experiences.