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[Arcee]

Thanks, Marie. Your points here are really helpful.
I am one of those with a stent high up in the jugular and am still left with a lingering question regarding one of GiCi's comments:

Zamboni has not used stents in the jugular veins so far because of doubts regarding the behaviour of the prosthesis in a highly mobile location: the azygos vein is situated in a location (the chest) which is pretty stationary.

I am not great with the anatomy stuff, but given Marie's description, and that the stents for some of us are pretty much behind our ears which seems as immobile to me as the chest, I am not quite sure I get what the concern is. Thanks for clarifying!

[mrhodes40]

Hi,
you can look at Alex's MRV and Xray on the research thread at the bottom. The stents are about 2 inches long and in a location where her neck bends. Mine are in the same spot they stick down below my jaw a little.

The stent is not in the brain of course, that would hurt it. There are locations/venous malformations that are going to be too high for stents--then it would require a neurosurgeon assuming one could be found that agreed that such a thing needed repairing.

if you think of a skull, like a halloween prop if you have to, there is the round part on top then below the eye sockets the teeth that grin at you. the upper teeth attach to the bottom of the skull, there's a bony wall along the bottom of the skull where they insert; so that if you look into the eye sockets, it s a cavern in there and if you turn the skull over so you look at the roof of the mouth you see the bottom of the skull. The lower jaw is separate. The mobile vertebrae attach to the skull at the bottom of the back, and these vertebrae all move and twist. If you think about it there is not much bone holding your head up, it is almost all muscles. As the head turns on the spinal column the many muscles of the neck all support your noggin and keep it on there. They are also what allow the neck to make those moves and what gives the neck its bulk.

so yes all that stuff moves... a lot. You can put your head to your chest, look left look right.......

These are early days and it is possible that some day everyone will know that stents are great here---or perhaps it will eventually be determined that something else is better (open surgery? IDK, beyond my pay-grade)

[Arcee]

Thanks so much Really learned something new and important. Still would like to be a fly on the wall (EDIT: really would like Marie or Cheer to be that fly) when Dr. Dake and Dr. Zamboni discuss this issue...
Whatever your pay grade, what you have offered to the forum is invaluable. Thanks again.