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Left Arm/Shoulder

My 14 yr old has been going to a Orthopedic Surgen for 2+ yrs, we have as much PT.  This yr they finally did an MRI that showed no tears or such.  She has swelling of her arm, turns purples, get cool, throbs & piercing pains.  It seems it has more to do with nerves from thpain she is having, but the swelling, coolness & purple color point a different way.  We go to a Neuloogist next week & Orthopedic dr has called for a Venogram CT Scan.
  The lsat time this happened was a couple weeks ago after batting practice, she was fine until a few minutes after she stopped, her pain was soo bad we went to the ER even though I knew they wouldn't be able to do much as the way of test.
What is a Venogram CT, I read a bit but still not sure.  What about the MRI & CT Scan in the same year, is that to much dye & scans?  I don't want to cause side effects, but we need to solve this.
  Is there anything we are not looking at??
  Any advise??
Thanks
Cararae
3 Responses
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547368 tn?1440541785
Hi Cararae,

Remeber I am not a physician nor an expert. This is how I understand it. Narrowing and stenosis are interchangeable words that basically mean the same. Narrowing causes stenosis, a medical term of a part which again is narrowing. This term is most often used to describe arteries, veins or the spinal canal.

It will depend on your surgeon if they will preform surgery to "open" the veins. Usually at this level (70%) medications are preferred which aids in the avoidance of clotting caused by the stenosis.  

Hope this is helpful and best of luck to you.

Tuck.
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Avatar universal
Can someone help understand what this means in laymans terms??

1. There is a 3 cm long segment of concentric narrowing, with approximately 70%
stenosis of the proximal left brachial vein.
2. A 1.9 cm long segmental narrowing of the proximal left subclavian vein is
suspected

Thanks for any & all help.
Cararae
Helpful - 0
356518 tn?1322263642
Venography (also called phlebography, ascending contrast phlebography, or contrast venography) is an invasive diagnostic test that provides a constant image of  veins on a fluoroscope screen. Venography identifies the location, extent, and degree of attachment of the blood clots, and enables the condition of the deep veins to be assessed. It is especially useful when there is a strong suspicion of deep vein thrombosis, but non-invasive tests have failed to identify the disease.
Venography is the most accurate test for detecting deep vein thrombosis. It is nearly 100% sensitive and specific in making this diagnosis (pulmonary embolism is diagnosed in other ways). Accuracy is crucial since deep vein thrombosis can lead to pulmonary embolism, a condition that can be fatal.
Veins are not normally seen in an x-ray, so a special dye (called contrast) is used to highlight them.

I would not think that these test would cause any danger to your daughter. I assume the doctor will preform the one most likely to give some answers so she will not have to do any of the test that's not necessary.
It sounds like there is a circulation problem because of the purple color and the pain could be nerve related.
Please let us know how she is and how the test turn out.
We all hope for the best and wish her a speedy recovery:)
Helpful - 0
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