Hi Sid. I wanted to ask about subclavian steel. A friend of mine has alot lower blood pressure in one arm than the other. So his doctor finally had a cath done and was told he has subclavian steel syndrome. so now they are going to have to do surgery to correct this condition. Oh also has carotid blockage too.

They had talked to a vascular/heart surgeon and he suggested to do a carotid/subclavian/aortic bypass graph. Which they said would have to use one surgeon on the aortic graph and one on the carotid. Then they got a second opinion and this doctor was strictly a vascular surgeon at Ohio State and said that he would go with a carotid/subclavian/carotid graph? I think I have this right. Now my question is do you know which one would work better with less complications post op and what all the statictics would be on this type of surgery? Is this a common surgery? Thanks so much if you can help at all I appreciate it. Sam

the correct term is subclavian steal syndrome (the subclavian artery goes toward the arm, and has a branch to the brain -- if there are blockages in the right place, blood flow is "stolen" from the brain circulation.) The best surgical solution depends on the specific anatomy in each case; and there are probably more than one way to do it in each case. Most cardiothoracic surgeons do less of that sort of surgery than do vascular surgeons, so my bias is toward going with an experienced vascular surgeon. However, in various communities, experience differs. It's not a real common operation as vascular procedures go, but the techniques are those used in many many procedures, so as long as the surgeon is experienced, the danger is very low. click here for an article which is pretty informative but a little too technical.

Thanks again for all the information on this. I think the web site is a good one, I will have to brush up on my nursing for some of it. Thanks so much.