I’m having surgery with Dr Hepworth in a couple weeks. I’d like to keep my styloid. Any other Dr Hepworth patients have experience with asking to keep the styloid?
You won’t be allowed to keep your styloid. Often, they aren’t removed in one piece but come out in several fragments. There are state laws that dictate the resected styloid pieces need to be sent to a medical lab for evaluation. I think this is true for anything removed from the body. I wanted to keep mine but my surgeon told me no for the same reason - “they were being sent to the lab for to be evaluated”. 
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Are you a Dr. Hepworth patient? I had a rib removed (TOS) at the same hospital I’ll have my eagles surgery and kept my rib. Is it unique to styloid’s that those need to be evaluated? Thanks
Others have regularly asked to have their styloids & been told they can’t, not sure about Dr Hepworth specifically…they’ll be sent to Histopathology for analysis.
@Nikkimm, I think it’s general medical policy in the U.S. We live in a very litigious society, & when doctors get sued for malpractice, it takes them away from their practices to fight legal battles w/ attorneys in court. It’s easier for them to err on the side of caution & get everything that comes out of patients checked by a lab for anything untoward (i.e. cancer cells, bacteria, etc) to verify the tissues are benign. It hasn’t always been this way. When my sister had her tonsils out in 1965 or 66, she was allowed to take them home in a jar of alcohol. Maybe it helped that our dad was a doctor on staff at that hospital, but I think things were more relaxed from a legal standpoint back then which helped, too.
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Thank you .
Thank. You.
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