Median Arcuate Ligament Syndrome (MALS)

Does laying on one side versus the other make a difference? Do you lay flat? For me I lay on my left side. I know everyone's anatomy is a little different. This is an interesting discussion.

I was always worse sitting bent over. Lying down best for me.

I had the CT scan with dye last week. The vessels were....clear. Very surprised! So I called my Gastro
Doctor. She wanted a Barium Swallow- to me the worst test in the world. It is in 1 week. She also looked at my scan to make sure from a MD standpoint it looked ok. I will follow-up with her
In June ( unless there is a cancellation)
Now , I’m glad it’s not my celiac artery.
Dr. Suess has his work set out for him.

Yes, definitely! I always sit with my legs pulled up to my chest.

Has anyone noticed a difference with posture? Less pain leaning slightly forward versus sitting or standing completely straight.

Pain and nausea are bad. Not taking anything for pain. Tomorrow I’m having a CT scan followed by a Vascular Surgeon appt.

Thank you for sharing your experience! You have been through a lot. It sounds like your surgeon is on top of this, please keep us up-to-date on what your next step is. So many of us do well, and unfortunately the pain returns. Welcome to Mayo Connect, it is so helpful to others to hear each person's experience. What are you doing to control the pain currently?

Hi. I’m new here. I had Celiac Artery Decompression in 9/2016. It started as epigastric pain after a Nissen Fundoplication 1/2016. I lost 76 lbs I was hospitalized many times. One time I met a wonderful surgeon who ordered testing of my celiac artery. Low and behold, that was the problem. This surgeon is VERY THOROUGH!
He needed to do a Endoscopy on me first to look at my Nissen. Once that was done in August, e planned the Laparoscopy Celiac Artery decompression. He rarely does open ones. In my case, he needed to take apart my Nissen to do the decompression then restructure the Nissen. This surgeon even CALLED ME THE NIGHT BEFORE THE SURGERY! I was amazed. The surgery went well. I stayed overnight. I was discharged the next day. His diet protocols were slow and steady. It took me 3 months to feel better and gain weight. The surgeon
was just on the cusp of starting a feeding tube. He saw me routinely until I felt better and was gaining weight.
About 1 month ago, the symptoms returned. I called the previous surgeons office, left a message as to how to proceed. He the proceeded to call me back that afternoon to discuss what I should do next. He is awesome!
So I’m following up with the Vascular Team tomorrow. Day by day the epigastric Pain worsens, nausea and dry heaves worsens, any activity like walking gives me more nausea and pain. The next step is a stent I was told by vascular. It is an awful condition.
Interesting enough, my younger sister has MALS also but in a different artery.

Wishing all here less pain..

I went back to Dr. Hsu after further consoltation... He said I have bigger unrelated issues going on that I need to resolve. DROPPED. Still doing pretty bad; but, I'm guessing that things are thoracic at this point.

I had open angio plasty for sma and cut part of the diaphragm to release the celiac. Not sure of all the technical terms. Long surgery, 7 plus hours. They did a lot of stuff. I think the celiac was so entangled as well and pushed the sma farther or something like that. Anyway surgery was successful, the pain was gone, it was slow recovery in just getting in and out of bed. Huge incision across from top of ribs kind of vertical to down over the belly button. By 4th or 5th month they started narrowing again. Continued so by a little over a year and a half I had stents put in each artery. Open by pass would have been best option, but I was physically to weak. I had a lot of stress going on aside from the physical issues that really effected my recovery. Then this past Oct. I had angio and balloon in the celiac. I still have a lot of pain. I had some relief after both of these procedures, but keeps narrowing. I don't know why. Also there is the issue of celiac ganglion nerves. I didn't even know about that until the past year. It could also be from that nerve pain. But if your scans are showing occlusions I would think that isn't the main problem. There are a lot of people that have MALS surgery, open or lap and after recovery are symptom free. Like I say, everyone is different. You also need a qualified MALS surgeon and qualified person doing and reading any of the images.... I wish you luck and please keep us posted.