what are the risks of having open pectus surgery?

Answer 1

What complications are associated with the operation?

Pneumothorax; Pneumothorax is an accumulation of air or gas in the pleural space. The majority of times this just requires observation and a follow-up chest x-ray. On occasion a chest tube may be required.

Bleeding; This is an extremely rare complication of this procedure. Should it occur, a larger incision to open the chest would be required.

Pleural effusion; Pleural effusion is when there is fluid around the lung. Most of the time this can be watched with chest x-rays. However, on rare occasion a chest tube or drain is required.

Infection; Infection is rare with the operation. Antibiotics are given at the time of surgery and following surgery in hopes of preventing this complication.

Bar displacement; As the child grows there is some risk that the bar could move. On rare occasions this would require reoperation to reposition the bar. With the most recent modification of the Nuss procedure, the incidence of bar displacement is less than 2 out of 100 patients.

Pectus excavatum recurrence: The largest series in the literature reports a recurrence rate of approximately 5 percent. It is felt that this could be due to having the procedure done too early prior to their pubertal growth spurt and/or not leaving the bar in place long enough