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Chapter 96

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1648 PART 5 ■ Anesthetic, Surgical, and Interventional Procedures: Considerations<br />

can accommodate the repair, which includes closure of the<br />

sternal defect, repair of the diaphragmatic hernia, and closure of<br />

the omphalocele. 30<br />

Pectus Excavatum<br />

Pectus excavatum accounts for approximately 90% of chest wall<br />

defects, with an incidence of 1 in 300 live births. The etiology is<br />

possibly related to the overgrowth of cartilage in the adjacent ribs,<br />

displacing the sternum posteriorly. Clinically, it presents more<br />

commonly in boys at a ratio of 3:1, becoming more progressive in<br />

posterior displacement as the child enters puberty. It is associated<br />

with Marfan’s syndrome (2% of cases), diaphragmatic abnormalities<br />

(2% of cases) and congenital heart disease (1.5%). 31<br />

Patients may present asymptomatically or may have complaints of<br />

chest pain, palpitations, and asthma-like symptoms. There<br />

continues to be considerable debate about the clinical impact of<br />

this defect upon cardiovascular and pulmonary function.<br />

Intuitively, the compression of the heart and the lungs by the<br />

sternum should result in dysfunction. Lower lung volumes and<br />

decreased cardiac output have been recorded in patients with<br />

severe defects during exercise; 32–33 improvements in function have<br />

been demonstrated in patients postoperatively. Indications for<br />

surgical repair are more commonly psychological, related to issues<br />

around poor self-image, and less commonly related to issues of<br />

physiologic compromise of clinically relevant cardiopulmonary<br />

dysfunction; the latter may be important for a patient with a severe<br />

defect who also happens to be a competitive athlete.<br />

The occasional child with a concurrent diagnosis of Marfan’s<br />

syndrome or congenital heart disease should be considered for<br />

repair of the chest wall defect before open heart surgery to avert<br />

the issues of compression of the cardiac structures. The surgical<br />

options are essentially two: the Ravitch procedure (an open<br />

surgical approach) and the Nuss procedure (a minimally invasive<br />

approach). The former technique has been used for more than 50<br />

years and has undergone minor revisions over time. Figure<br />

<strong>96</strong>–11AB shows a patient with pectus excavatum before and after<br />

a Ravitch repair. Intraoperative and postoperative considerations<br />

include pneumothorax, hemorrhage, and pain management. In<br />

long-term follow-up, patients will experience minor recurrences of<br />

the defect in 10 to 15% of cases and major recurrences in 10 to<br />

15% of cases for an overall recurrence rate of 20 to 30%. 34–35<br />

Because of an infrequent but devastating long-term complication<br />

of thoracic dystrophy, children should be at least 6 years of age<br />

before undergoing surgical correction of this defect; some authors<br />

now recommend delaying repair until 12 to 16 years of age to<br />

reduce the chance of this complication. 36<br />

The Nuss procedure has become the de facto procedure for the<br />

correction of pectus excavatum in the United States. The attraction<br />

of this technique is its cosmetically more acceptable outcome,<br />

because it eliminates the transverse chest incision of the Ravitch<br />

procedure and replaces it with two small lateral chest wall<br />

incisions; it functions on the premise that the chest wall can be<br />

remodeled over a nondeformable metal bar that forcibly pushes<br />

the sternum and ribs from the spine, increasing the anteriorposterior<br />

distance; the bar is usually left in place for 2 to 3 years to<br />

reduce the chance of recurrence of the defect. The intraoperative<br />

and postoperative considerations include pain management,<br />

pneumothorax, and metal bar displacement. More serious<br />

complications have included cardiac perforation, empyema,<br />

pericarditis, and the development of thoracic outlet syndrome.<br />

The overall complication rate is 20 to 28%, which is higher than for<br />

the Ravitch procedure (

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