Pectus excavatum is a chest disorder that effects approximately one in every 1000 people. The deformity is easily recognized by the concave , funnel shaped chest.

The sunken sternum can apply pressure on vital organs and restrict organ growth and shortness of breath is very commonly experienced. Pectus excavatum  usually becomes more serious as you grow and you will see end result around your 20's.

Surgery Options

previously , the pectus excavatum surgery options have been rather invasive and required resection of cartilage and bone which can be very painful and requires a long recovery period.

Then came along Dr.Nuss in cooperation with Walter Lorenz Surgical inc developed the minimally invasive surgical procedure and pectus bar implant to remodel the chest wall over a 2 to 3 year peroid. This is the Nuss procedure that everyone with P.E is talking about.

The nuss technique is also known as the "Minimally Invasive Repair of Pectus Excavatum".

 Minimally Invasive Operation - This technique requires neither cartilage incision or resection for correction of P.E. There is no need to make an incision in the anterior chest wall, raise pec muscles or reset rib cartliages.

Operating time reduced - The procedure is considerably shorter than the originally used method and now takes approximately 40 minutes opposed to the 4 to 6 hours required for a chest reconstruction.

Minimal Blood Loss - Blood loss is 10 to 30 cc's compared to the 300 cc's from a standard chest procedure.

Quicker Recovery - the average time for a patient to resume regular activities once treated is around one month.

Excellent Long Term Results - studies have shown that the nuss technique will maintain its effect for the long term. 

 Patient Selection - Generally patients with pectus excavatum are considered for surgery if they are between the ages of 4 and 20 years, when the ribs and cartilage are much more malleable. With this being said now a days surgery has been known to be performed on people as old as 50 , so its never to late if you choose to take the surgery option.

 Before Surgery

before surgery generally there are 3 things that are looked at to consider whether or not surgery is an option, these days surgeons are usually happy to do the procedure just for cosmetic reasons.

1- CT Scan of the chest 

2- Echocardiogram

 3- Pulmonary function studies 

I know this hub is very introductory hub to pectus excavatum surgery but the next hub I will write will cover the basic process involved with the Nuss surgery and go into more detail for anyone considering this surgery or needing more information.

hope this stuff helps someone out as I dont see any hubs similar to these ones at all. I will also post some exerices i have used to improve my pectus excavatum appearance.

Also to note , IF your looking for a Surgeon visit Pectuslist.com , as I keep a quite a bit list of doctors around the world performing the surgery , that people have used and are happy with