PECTUS EXCAVATUM CORRECTION

Your child has been seen by a pediatric surgeon for pectus excavatum or “sunken chest”. You and the doctor have decided that your child needs surgery to fix the depression in his/her chest. Special x-rays and breathing tests have been done before that tells you and the doctor that surgery is needed. Here is what to expect:

THE DAY BEFORE SURGERY

•  Your child will need to have blood drawn.

•  Your child should have a mild enema to clean out his/her intestines.

•  Your child cannot have anything to eat or drink after midnight.

THE DAY OF SURGERY

•  Your child will be asleep during the operation.

•  A thin plastic tube (epidural catheter) will be placed in your child’s back to give numbing medicine.

•  Your child will have an IV to give fluids and medicine.

•  Your child will have a small plastic tube (foley catheter) in his/her bladder to drain urine.

•  Two small cuts will be made one on each side of the chest. This is where the steel bar will go in under the breastbone. The bar will not be seen on the outside. The bar is used to “pop out” the depression. The steel bar will stay in place for about two years. There are no stitches on the outside, just small paper Band-Aids (Steri-Strips).