• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.31 no.9
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• pp.903-906
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• 1998

A 17-year-old-boy with a bilateral incomplete cervical rib, upon abduction of his left arm at 45 degrees, had immediately begun to show symptoms of severe tingling, claudication, pallor, and weakness of his left upper extremity. These symptoms were aggravated at 90 degrees, leaving him debilitated from his work in the printing office. Transfemoral positional subclavian arteriography revealed total occlusion of the subclavian artery immediately distal to a cervical rib during 90 degrees abduction. Resection of the anterior scalene and medial aspect of the middle scalene muscles, cervical and first ribs, and arteriolysis were performed via a combined supraclavicular and infraclavi cular approach. He has returned to work as a printer with marked relief of symptoms and has remained asymptomatic over follow-up periods of 10 months.