Thoracoscopy Assisted Minimally Invasive Surgery (Nuss Procedure) For Pectus Excavatum

Objective: To assess the efficacy and safety of the correction of pectus excavatumwith thoracoscopy assisted minimally invasive surgery(Nuss procedure).Methods: Thoracoscopy assisted Nuss procedure were applied to131cases ofpatients with pectus excavatum from July2005to April2013.The patients ranged inage from3to21(mean13.6) years.Of the131,73had symmetric and58hadasymmetric pectus excavatum.Results: The operation in all the131patients were performed successfully withoutcomplications of death, massive hemorrhage and intrathoracic organ injury. Thebleeding volume during procedure was3-22ml, with an average of8.5ml.The timeof operation was40-89minutes (mean53minutes). The time of postoperativehospital-stay was4-9days,with an average of6.5days.Early and late postoperativecomplications included pneumothorax in8patients,pleural effusion in3patients,subcutaneous emphysema in2patients,bar displacement in2patients,barallergy in1patient.After bar removal in88patients,74patients (84.1％) maintainedexcellent results with normal chest anatomy,good results were found in12patients(13.6％) with mild residual pectus excavatum and fair results in2patients (2.3％),therate of excellent and good results being97.7％.Conclusions: The treatment of children’s pectus excavatum by the thoracoscopyassisted minimally invasive Nuss procedure has the advantages of minimalinvasion,less bleeding,no-invasion chest bone,early recovery and the satisfactory,safeand reliable effect,and it’s worthy to be widely used.