Hi Folks,
I’ve had an appointment with Dr Axon. He said he would do surgery. However he would shave the C1 but leave the styloid alone as it’s not long enough.
Looking at the scans, it appears that the IJV is compressed between the C1 and styloid as pointed out by Dr Kamran.
Has anyone had surgery this way before or heard of doing it this way?
For those interested, Dr Axon said he has done 300 surgeries for IJVS. His track record is very good.
It does vary, some people have more compression from the styloids, and some more compression with the C1, it is more unusual to still remove the styloid as well though. But it does depend on your symptoms too; do you have just the vascular ones, or do you have the ‘classic’ symptoms of neck pain, swallowing issues, or nerve pain in your face, jaw etc? Mr Axon is very experienced- I had bilateral IJV compression just from the styloids, no C1 involvement, & he did both my surgeries, I had really good results so am very blessed…
I guess you have to weigh up both doctors’ opinions, see who you feel more confident with, the logistics of travel, cost etc as well as the two different techniques!
@Bronte - We’ve recently had another member who saw Dr. Axon & was given the same information. I think she’s going ahead with her surgery w/ him, but since she feels her styloid is a significant contributor to her symptoms, I suggested that she request he do a styloidectomy at the same time as the IJV decompression/C1 shave. I don’t know if he will comply with a patient request, but I expect if a sufficiently strong case can be made by the patient for the need for a styloidectomy, he’d at least consider it.
Thanks Jules,
I don’t have the typical throat pain or trouble swallowing. Though it does look quite clear on the scans that both bones are impinging on the IJV.
My neurologist has picked up that my C2 looks subluxed/dislocated on a 3D reconstruction and I’m now getting more scans to investigate this.
That’s good to know that there is someone else in a similar scenario with him.
I think I might do the same. He is incredibly experienced in the field, but like all experts they can get fixated on certain data which controls their decisions.