Peri-operative data on the nuss procedure in children with pectus excavatum: independent survey of the first 20 years' data

OBJECTIVE: To review the literature and assess the cumulative data on the Nuss operation in children on its twenty years' anniversary: The Nuss procedure corrects the pectus excavatum by minimal access semi-permanent insertion of metal bars in order to reduce the deformity and refashion the contour of the growing thorax. The advantage over previous techniques is avoidance of osteochondrotomies and thence allowance for normal growth of the thorax. STUDY DESIGN: PubMed search was performed. Primary outcomes were mortality, morbidity and individual complications. Secondary outcomes were procedure time and hospital stay. RESULTS: We merged the data from 19 reports comprising 1949 children of mean age 10.6 years. No mortality was observed and the procedure was associated with morbidity of 15.4%. The commonest complications are bar-related adverse events (5.7%) and pneumothorax (3.5%). The average procedure time and the average hospital stay were 68 minutes and 5.5 days respectively. CONCLUSION: 20 years of initial evidence suggests that the Nuss group of procedures is a safe minimal access option for correction of pectus excavatum in childhood.