Modified Nuss procedure for the treatment of pectus excavatum: Experience of 259 patients

Background: Pectus excavatum is not rare in China. Many treatments for this disease have proved to have many shortcomings. Nuss procedure has been a ground-breaking technology, but it also has some disadvantages. Hence, this study was conducted to review our experience in the use of modified Nuss procedure in our hospital. Methods: Data from 259 patients suffered from pectus excavatum between August 2020 and August 2021 who were treated with modified Nuss procedure was analyzed retrospectively. Result: Age was from 3 to 37 years. The average was 15.54 years. The male was 213 cases and the female was 46 cases. The time patients or their family members found pectus excavatum varied. 10 cases had been repaired previously when patients were admitted in our hospital. The clinical symptoms also varied. Each case had an improvement in Haller index. The average of the postoperative hospitalization was 3.97 days. Most cases were inserted 1 bar. Complication rate was also very low. All patients or their parents or their guardians were satisfied with the appearance of the chest wall after operation. There was no death in the whole observation period. Conclusion: From our experience, this modified Nuss procedure have obtained optimistic outcomes with more minimal invasion and low complication rate. This surgical method may be applied to many other hospitals in the future.