?surgery

A forum member, Suewithout, had a successful mvd surgery at the Atkinson Morley Wing of St George's Hospital but she did not mention the name of the surgeon. I have copied her post below. You can find her original post on the thread "HFS and MVD"

"Hi, I have suffered with hemifacial spasm for almost 6 years. one hospital told me it was because I had no back teeth, So I paid out for false teeth. But at last I got referred to Atkinson Morley Hospital in Tooting. London.

I had a microvascular decompression op 3 weeks ago.

I woke up completely free of any twitching. Its Heaven. Although I have almost lost all my hearing in the left ear. I may get it back or I may not.

I have another ear. Its got to be better than the twitching I suffered from.

I was planning to go back to work after 2 weeks, But won't be returning for another week. As my job is minibus driver. So I plan to be sure before I go back, that i am fit and well.

I tried Botox twice before the op. what a waste of time, and I couldn’t think of living the rest of my life being injected every 2 months.

So I don't regret having the op. so good luck to all.

suewithout 17 Jul 2010 (thread ‘HFS and MVD’)"

If you look on the two Facebook Hemifacial Spasm Support Groups I am pretty sure you will find several people who have had surgery with Henry Marsh at St Georges.  He seems to enjoy a good reputation from what I've read.  It is a big operation and you need to ask Henry Marsh as many questions as possible about his track record.  I would suggest asking how often he does MVD surgery specifically for HFS (needs to be at least weekly), how long he's been doing these surgeries, what percentage of patients have been fully cured, what percentage have had some improvement, what percentage experience hearing loss post surgery.  You should look for upwards of 80% complete success and a surgeon who does this surgery very regularly.  I was told that the recovery period is 4 months, but most people seem to be pretty well after 6 weeks.  It is essential to be able to rest lots post operatively and you need to be prepared for complications, even though many people experience none (like me thankfully).  All the best.

Thanks for all the info.I am keeping ff the facebook website right now as it vcomes up on my facebook page and I don,t want all my "friends" commenting on this or knowing about it right now.

This is my,my husband and our 2 awesome childrens decision for me to go thru this and I am sure there are  a lot of people who have had negative comments(often uninformed)about surgery so I want to keep this to this forum .

Appreciate your comments and will check fb site for comments.

Thanks again.

It is such a big decision.

I went to St George's yesterday for my routine 10-weekly botox injections and saw a different doctor who actually talked to me and made me feel much happier. She said she would arrange for me to have an MRI scan immediately and gave me the form to take to the MRI department on my way out. She offered to give me some injections on the other side of my face to even it up but I declined. She also asked if I wanted to have one next to my mouth because the Botox can make the mouth a bit saggy and dribbly so I decided against having one in that region this time. I would also like to know if anyone has any feedback about being operated on by Henry Marsh at St George's.

still haven,t heard of anyone having surgery by Henry Marsh and retaining their hearing,