Outcomes of the minimally invasive nuss procedure for pectus excavatum

Abstract

Because of some disadvantages of the "Ravitch method," which is the classical open surgical method used for many years in the treatment of pectus excavatum (PE), as an alternative to it, a minimally invasive surgical method called the “Nuss procedure” has been developed. This procedure has become the most preferred surgical method in the treatment of PE in recent years. In our study, we aimed to share the results of the “Nuss procedure” that we applied to our patients with PE in light of the literature. The files of 77 patients who underwent a Nuss operation for PE in our clinic between July 2007 and March 2023 were evaluated retrospectively. The age, gender, surgical method, complications, and length of hospital stay of the patients were recorded. The median age was 17.71±4.84 years (range, 2.5-33) and the majority of patients were male (63 males, 14 females). As symptoms, 14 (18.2%) patients had dyspnea, 32 (41.5%) had chest pain, and almost all patients had psychosocial problems. While minimal pneumothorax was the most common early postoperative complication (n=18, 23.4%), bar dislocation was the most common late complication (n=5, 6.5%). None of the patients had serious complications such as death, organ injury, or massive bleeding during the operations. We think that the Nuss procedure, which is a minimally invasive approach, can be safely applied to selected patients due to its short operation time, low complication rate, and success in correcting the deformity.