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Surgeons will likely remove Steven Stamkos’ top rib on his right side today to alleviate pressure that caused a blood clot to form near his collarbone. “It isn’t a rib like you’d think of, it is much smaller, more like the size of an index finger,” explained Dr. Thomas Forbes, vascular surgeon at Toronto’s Peter Munk Cardiac Centre. Forbes said that rib, which is bonded by the collarbone, constricts blood flow to the vein and can cause clotting with trauma or repetitive motion, such as raising your arms above your head. It isn’t easy to pinpoint a timeline for Stamkos’ return; the Lightning said between one and three months. “Normal recovery for range of motion and exercise would be about one month from just the surgery alone,” Dr. Forbes said. “Doctors would then recommend some period of time on blood thinners, perhaps one month, which also complicates the timeline.” NHL players are not permitted to play games while on blood-thinning medication, as Chicago’s Kimmo Timonen revealed last year. A conservative doctor would peg a return to the ice in two months. Will Tampa Bay still be playing in early June?
The $70-million (or more) question potential suitors will want to know before betting on Stamkos this summer: How likely are these clots to re-occur? The answer is not likely. It isn’t possible to know Stamkos’ complete medical history, but surgeons removing his rib will likely prevent a clot from forming there again. The doctor performing Stamkos’ surgery at Tampa General Hospital explained that vein as located “right in a nutcracker jaw.” With the rib removed, space is no longer an issue. Dr. Forbes said blood clots form for three reasons: sluggish blood flow (sitting/laying for long periods of time), trauma, and people who inherit hypercoagulable dispositions hereditarily. Timonen, for instance, found a protein deficiency that traced back to his mother, which made him susceptible to clotting. Barring an unreported hereditary condition, this is likely to be a one-time injury for Stamkos, not career impeding.
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