Median Arcuate Ligament Syndrome (MALS)

Hi Angie, I wanted to make sure that you saw @jhmontrose's and @astaingegerdm's responses to you. And to also bring in members like @jayson @lasirvent and @ukmalsman to share their thoughts to your questions about managing symptoms and surgery.

Angie, how long have you been dealing with MALS? What symptoms do you have?

Hello ALL! So I wanted to update everyone on my latest procedure. May 10th I had a surgical procedure to have a stent put in my Celiac Artery. The procedure was going to be difficult because the angle of the celiac artery. If the surgeon wasn’t able to obtain the right position of the stent then I would have to have a riskier surgery. Where they would’ve put me under and go from my arm. Which can be very difficult because the main artery that runs in the arm could fail and it would cause my arm to lose blood flow. So, the Vascular Surgeon was going to do his best in positioning the stent just right to open up the artery that was closed off.

So for some that have had the decompression surgery. All. know stents will not work if you haven’t had the ligament released. It will just crush the stent and you will be back at square one again.

The procedure was successful and the placement was perfect and opened the blood flow that was missing. The only issue was the surgeon had the first stent inserted and had to take it out because it was way to long. But went with a shorter one and it was perfect. After the surgery I had some reaction to the meds that were administered and was very ill. I couldn’t hold down food or water for a day or two and was sick as a dog.

With all that happening. I had my first real meal and I had no pain no discomfort ar all!!!! I’m blessed and thankful to Dr. Cho and Dr. DeCamp!! They worked out a plan to fix the problem and I’m all good to go!!!

I want to thank my wife for being there through all of this and helped me daily.

@jayson Congratulations!! Such great news! So happy for you. Life changes from one day to the next with no more pain.
Sorry you had reaction to meds. I have been there! Nowadays, I will tell them that I get sick from some of the drugs.
Enjoy your summer/ with BBQs. Etc!

Congratulations ❤️❤️ I’m so happy for you! You have given me hope and have encouraged me. I also had unsuccessful compression surgery at a different hospital and I am eagerly awaiting news from Mayo that they will be able to insert a stent. God bless you and your wife (and my husband for putting up with me)!

It’s been a long road as a lot of you have being going through for years with a lot of naysayers out there! The fight is real and for those who have been dealing with this miserable syndrome! Keep fighting because there is light at the end of the tunnel!!! Don’t take a no for an answer, or it’s in your head because this is real! I must say you have to have a strong backbone along with support in getting to the resolution your wanting. To feel better and live a normal life. You have to keep plugging along.
The compression release and now the stent have definitely given my life back to me and for my family. I have two beautiful grandkids and I wasn’t going to sit around and waste away! I wanted to be able to run around and enjoy them!

If anyone has questions on who I used for doctors and etc. Please don’t hesitate in dropping a line.
Dr. Lowry was my General Surgeon that did my release. He’s out of Shawnee Mission Hospital & Providence Hospital. Very awesome doctor who listens and understands what your going through. Upfront and personal in your well-being.
Dr. Jenny Cho and Dr. DeCamp Vascular Surgeons. Both of them work together and put a plan together after my open procedure to release my ligament. I had laparoscopic that turned into open (zipper incision).
Both of them work for The University of Kansas Health System. Dr. DeCamp is just like Dr. Lowry down to earth and listens to all that you’re going through. With Dr. Cho and Dr. DeCamp both of them fixed what was broken. Again I’m grateful to all that helped me.

That's encouraging news for sure. I had a rough go of it the first couple days after surgery also because either the anesthesia or rectus sheath block shut down my bladder so I had to be cathed twice.

Good news also with my situation, after a week staying off ibuprofen and using diclofenac topical, and taking 40 mg of Pepcid my stomach upset in the morning has finally gone away -- hopefully for good. I've had 2 mornings in a row without waking up sick.

As for the chest pains, @astaingegerdm is probably right that it's my diaphragm, because deep breathing also triggers the tingling pain. I've been doing a lot of stretching, 3 times a day. I think this is critical, and everyone who's had this surgery ought to see a physical therapist when they are ready. The reason is all the scar tissue inside the abdomen. I got a copy of my operative report and since this was my 2nd surgery, my surgeon had to work through a ton of adhesions just to get to my celiac trunk. Apparently there was a mass of neural tissue encasing the celiac origin that she removed, and the ligament also needed to be cut away much higher.

I still have a lot of worries, probably irrational ones, that it will come back yet again or something else will go wrong. I don't like the fact that I had so much scar tissue in me, but overall I'm in less pain at this point compared to where I was after the 1st surgery so that seems like a good sign. I've heard many people mention 3-4 months as the time frame to assess the surgery outcome, so until then I'm just going to keep stretching and hope this is the end of this miserable MALS saga.

Definitely a happy ending! Don’t worry now. Ligament is taken care of. Stent is working.
I had to go for annual follow ups for a while.

How often did you have to go to your follow ups?

Keep all of us updated on your next step. Prayers to u and for ur family.