Review Detail

I was 24 years old when I knew about the Nuss procedure as a possibility to correct my Pectus Excavatum (my Haller index was 3.5).

I was operated in Italy on 2013 after the chief surgeon explained me the Nuss procedure as something very fast and easy, absolutely painless and with a post-operative hospital stay and a recover from two to four days (!). He also told me that his team was experienced with more than fifteen Nuss procedures for year, but later, unfortunately, we discovered that it wasn't true.

I woke up after the surgery with a strong problem: I couldn't breath properly because of the inhumane pain coming from the inside of my chest and I couldn't move because of the large hematomas, big as the whole sides of my chest. My voice was very weak and it was difficult to communicate.

Furthermore, in the absence of any pleural drainages installed, after some days I had pneumonia and two liters of hematic pleural effusion were drained from my chest. In the following weeks I had a lot of other problems because of the inexperience of the hospital team regarding this particular operation.

Luckily my relatives, very worried for my worsening clinical condition, insisted with the hospital team to better investigate my persistent chest infections with a Thoracic Computed Axial Tomography (Thoracic CT scan). We discovered, later and by ourselves, that the two Nuss bars were not in the proper position inside my chest.

So, after 40 days in the hospital, with complicated chest infections and without signs of recovery, I decided by myself to leave the hospital.

In the following days I have been visited by another surgeon in another center in order to know the opinion of an expert for this kind of surgery. He suspected that the Nuss bars were moved, but he wouldn't write a medical report, because he was a close friend of the chief surgeon of the previous hospital.

I went to another expert, to know another opinion: he confirmed that the Nuss implant was moved into my chest but he did not mention the possible consequences. No one looked convinced to remove the implant, probably for the very high risks of the new operation. Maybe they were considering their risks and not those of the patient.

Prof. Klaus Schaarschmidt

My father and my aunt, desperately searching on the Internet, finally found a forum of the patients about the Nuss procedure. Quite impressed for the remarkable results in similar difficult situations and by the genuine gratitude of the patients, they soon contacted Prof. Klaus Schaarschmidt by email, asking for some help.

Since the first email, by knowing about my continuos fever, the kind of pain and other symptoms of infections, Prof. Schaarschmidt promptly understood that the implant moved into the chest and he immediately explained us of the seriousness of my clinical condition. He told us that a position displacement of a Nuss bar could easily kill the patient by damaging the heart and other vital organs inside the chest!

The day after I flew to the Helios Klinikum, in Berlin. Just arrived there, Prof. Schaarschmidt visited me and on next morning he operated me. The surgery took about six hours. He removed the two Italian Nuss bars and he fixed in the proper way a new Nuss bar in my chest.

At the Helios, soon after the operation, I could start the breathing exercises (thanks to a pain killer infusion by epidural chest catheter) and after a few days a tight program of physical therapy.
Furthermore Prof. Schaarschmidt came everyday to spur me and to walk with me along the hospital corridor. All this despite the various drainages that had been provided in various parts of my chest to avoid accumulation of liquid and infections.

I was very surprised after the surgery for the accurate procedures followed by the hospital staff and for the medical instrumentation used, nothing like what I had seen in the previous hospitalizations.

Just after the surgery I recovered the full level of the voice and I understood that the reason was that one of the bars placed mistakenly in the first operation was pressing on the trachea.

The pain, even if reduced, continued until the Nuss implant has been removed after 2 years, but we are quite sure that this was related to what happened with the first operation in Italy. At the moment I have no sensibility in a large surface of my chest, but I am here, still alive, thanks to Prof. Klaus Schaarschmidt and to his team.

Many doctors are presenting themselves as very experienced, but unfortunately they (and their staff) are not. The inexperience for the Nuss procedure nearly killed me and I suffered severe pain for a long time, and as you can find on the web inexperience and superficiality in these surgeries have killed several people in various parts of the world.

If you are going to consider a Nuss procedure, for you or for your son/daughter and you live in Europe I strongly recommend to avoid any risk and to contact directly an expert team like the team of Prof. Klaus Schaarschmidt at the Helios Klinikum in Berlin. Nearly one third of the Nuss operations that are done every year in this hospital are corrections of errors made in other parts of the world.

Thanks Prof. Schaarschmidt!!!