Noninvasive treatment of recurrent and acquired pectus excavatum with vacuum disk / 中华胸心血管外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To evaluate the effect of vacuum disk(VD) for non-invasive treatment of recurrent and acquired pectus excavatum(PE).Methods:From June 2017 to June 2019, 29 patients recruited from our outpatient clinic were included in this retrospective study and followed-up every 3 month according to the schedule. The patients were distributed into three groups(group 1 treated ≤6 months; group 2 treated from 6 months to 12 months; group 3 treated >12 months). The device should be applied regularly for more than 2 hours daily. The deformity chest wall was scanned by three-dimensional(3D)scanner at clinic, and the 3D-depth(3D-DE) and 3D-Haller index(3D-HI) of PE were calculated through Geomagic software.Results:In this cohort, 29 patients were eligible, 18 symmetrical PE and 11 asymmetric PE. The application time ranged from 3 months to 15 months(average 7.6 months). 4 paitents was lifted to a normal level, 23 patients were differently improved. However, 2 paitents had no improvement. The average of the depth and 3D-HI of all patients were improved from 17.7 mm to 11.6 mm and 1.739 to 1.598, respectively. It’s no statistically significant difference for the elevation of 3D-DE and 3D-HI between symmetrical and asymmetric PE( t=-2.821, P=0.558; t=0.074, P=0.068). When comparing the improvement of 3D-DE or 3D-HI of PE to the patient's treatment time, a statistically significant difference was proved between the group 2 and group 1( t=-2.261, P=0.014; t=-0.436, P=0.043), but not between the group 3 and group 2( t=-1.240, P=0.139; t=0.622, P=0.568). The main side effects include moderate subcutaneous hematoma(84%), petechial bleeding(27%), thoracalgia(32%) and chest tightness(17%), no other side effect appear till now. Conclusion:VD for treatment of recurrent and acquired PE is convenient, safe and noninvasive, which can be an alternative treatment for recurrent and acquired PE, However, long term of efficacy evaluation is still needed.