Is ultra-minimally invasive funnel chest correction effective?

  Pectus Excavatum is the most common congenital thoracic deformity, which is characterized by a sunken anterior chest wall centered on the lower and middle sternum, shaped like a funnel, and worsens with growth and development. The sunken sternum compresses the heart and lungs, affecting the development of organs, producing symptoms such as respiratory infections and reduced activity tolerance, and causing great psychological stress to the child and parents. Surgical correction is the only option to improve the condition. In the past, sternal reversal, rib cartilage excision or severance were used, which required extensive separation of the subcutaneous and muscles and severance of the sternum and ribs. The surgery takes a long time, is traumatic, bleeds a lot, has obvious scars, and causes postoperative thoracic developmental disorders and chest wall sclerosis. In the past ten years, we have treated more than 500 cases of congenital funnel chest and recurrent funnel chest by thoracoscopic minimally invasive funnel chest correction (NUSS surgery) with satisfactory results, which are among the most advanced in China.  In the past two years, we have pioneered ultra-minimally invasive funnel chest surgery on the basis of NUSS surgery, which uses the ultra-minimally invasive steel plates developed by our department to further simplify the operation, shorten the operation time, improve the operation effect and success rate, reduce the operation injury and postoperative complications, alleviate the postoperative pain, reduce the operation cost, shorten the hospitalization time, and expand the operation indications. Compared with traditional NUSS surgery, minimally invasive funnel chest correction avoids the huge lacerations to the soft tissues of the chest wall caused by intraoperative plate flipping; it is easier and faster to remove the plates and avoid secondary damage to the intercostal muscles caused by plate removal; it truly provides individualized treatment and is very satisfactory for the correction of asymmetric funnel chest. After the operation, the patient’s pain is lighter, the duration is shorter, he can turn over and lie on his side, and the operation time is reduced by half compared with the original one. The application of ultra-minimally invasive funnel chest correction has enabled us to reach the international advanced level in the treatment of funnel chest .