ABSTRACT
The term thoracic outlet compression syndrome first appeared in the medical literature as used by Rob and Standeven[1] in 1958. The significance of this change in nomenclature was the impetus it gave at a critical point to categorization of a group of painful disorders involving the shoulder and upper extremity. The idea of unifying a group of diverse neurovascular compression syndromes arising at the shoulder girdle was ready for acceptance, and in subsequent literature there was an attempt to define the underlying anatomical variations which resulted in the symptom complex in the majority of these patients.
