Dr. Klaus Schaarschmidt

My original Nuss was performed at the Mayo Clinic by Dr. J, fantastic results with the chest. I also give her and the Mayo Clinic 10/10. However Dr J was unable to correct the rib flare during the Nuss as well as during bar removal. I tried several braces to remedy the situation unsuccessfully like most people. I decided to email Dr. Schaarschmidt and pick his brain and responded very promptly with a detailed explanation of his planned procedure as well as cost and expected hospital stay. For anyone who is having difficulty getting your insurance to cover one of the fine American ones like Dr j, I highly recommend looking into Dr Schaar in Germany because the operation is about 1/10 of the cost that it would be in America...anyway on to the procedure!

Overall dr schaarschmidt is a very skilled and experienced surgeon for all pectus related procedures and he is clearly very passionate about what he does. He is very easy to reach via email. From what Dr Schaarschmidt described it sounds like he removed segments of defective cartilage and sutured the ends where the segments were removed together, closing the gap that was created. I am still currently recovering and am very swollen so I can't really speak for the cosmetic appearance quite yet, but it looks promising. Pain is not nearly comparable to the nuss, never required iv narcotics and after about 3 days I didn't need pain killers at all. Should be able to fly home once the last drainage tube is removed with no problems. My advice would be just to get the ribs and chest fixed at the same time and save yourself a 2nd procedure if possible, the nuss is already very painful, can't imagine the rib correction makes it significantly worse.

As for the hospital it's a bit outdated compared to the state of art mayo clinic. But they have everything you need here. Some of the nurses and hospital workers don't speak much English, which i expected. They are also not quite as agressive with pain medicine here in Germany, however I'm not so sure you need it. the TV is all in German, so I was pretty bored but that's really my only minor complaint. But They are very nice and hospitable and they will let you stay a bit longer if you ask. Dr Schaar frequently checks on you as well.

Overall I give my experience an A+ and if I remember I'll be back with updates as far as the cosmetic appearance goes!

I had a NUSS redo with Prof. Dr. Klaus Schaarschmidt my first one was not very successful (but according to my surgeon was alright) so I get in touch with Prof. Dr. Dr. Schaarschmidt again to speak what could be done ... And I after one unsuccessful operation and the fact that I have to pay for my op this time and it is in foreign country makes me very anxious . But meeting him in person discussing the options possibilities and outcome and everything that could come to my mind makes me regret that I did not manage to go with him from the first time ...
His knowledge and experience is flawless and he was the only one who manage to see how the things are and how it should be and manage to do it (honestly I am 34 at this time and I was discussing the problem since I was 13 with doctors from 4 different countries) and from what he told to me makes perfect sense ...

So After my discussion with him we set up a date I done the payment and proceed with Operation ...
After operation I spent few days in intensive care where my pains and discomfort was handled better than expected ...Honestly I receive so many injections and did not felt even a slight discomfort ... I have not imagine that it is possible to be in a hospital full with skillful Stuff ...

About my recovery I am really impressed I never ever dreamed that it could be so fast and smooth so far I can say you can measure it with minutes and hours and days ... I will give you an example if I feel something difficult to do on my physiotherapie in the morning by noon I can do it and in the evening I was able to do it freely ...

With my hospital stay I was pushed to do physiotherapie and lots of breathing exercises which helped me to expand my lungs to the newspace and I was reaching more and more volume after every time I was exercising ... with therapie after the operation it speed up my recovery even more ...

Now about my look ...It looks good no it looks awesome better than expected now my chest muscles looks bigger and by that I mean 2 times more longer and wider ... my Sternum looks in place with nothing more and nothing less my voice become much more dense, powerful and relaxed (before I was sounding like I am nervous or angry at you) which makes a lot of difference when you speak with people ...

My first operation was done by two top surgeons and my second was done by Prof. Dr. Dr. Schaarschmidt and if I have to recommend someone it will be him because: His knowledge , experience , Very Important My RECOVERY TIME and Availability (I was manage to see him almost every day and he held me use the devices to exercise my lungs the right way )

So If you are looking for this type of operation you better go with him from the first time it makes a lot of difference to have it done the right way and to be back to your normal life as soon as possible

probably will ad pictures in future when I have more time and if you have any questions feel free to ask

I had a Redo NUSS with Prof Schaar. so far I can say it looks awesome, or even beyond my expectations ...
I had a NUSS operation back in 2011 and had the bar in me for 8 years and when it came out my chest sunk back in straight away so I start looking for different options to fix that and contact him again.

I am so glad that I done that first I wanted to meet him in person and to discuss the whole thing so he was so kind to arrange an appointment where he explained me everything that I needed to know plus his visions and reasons to do the procedure his way which made much more sense to me ..
I will say that that specific meeting made me to find the money and pay him for a redo operation with him ...

everything was very simple we arrange a date I payed the money and arrived in the hospital on agreed date ... he came to meet me which was very relaxing (considering the fact it is a foreign country for me) and on the next day we went to the operation ... where Prof Schaar. came to see me again ...
after that I was put to sleep and wake up ...
Honestly I wake up in extreme pain which was handled by the stuff professionally in no time ....
and Now the fun begins I realised I had something enormous where my chest suppose to be I started to ask honestly isn't that a bit too much but as soon as I manage to see myself in the mirror I realise that it is not too much it is exactly how it suppose to be with nothing less and nothing more ...

I spent few days in Intensive care unit where my condition was monitored all the time and by all the time I mean ALL the time for example at some point I felt knoxios and seconds after a nurse was storming my room with proper medications ...

what else I can say all the hospital stuff was extremely experienced ... I cut off the pain killers after the first night and I can say I receive many injections and not even one of them was even remotely painful or even uncomfortable even when they removed the draining tubes from me .

after that I was moved to my room where I start recovering even faster oh yes I can say I was recovering surprisingly fast I can measure my recovery by days or even by hours and minutes and I am dead serious ...

I had some plastic things to exercise my lungs so I can say there was around of 500ml improvement between morning and evening lets say I started at around 2000ml few days after the operation and finished above 5000ml. when I was discharged ...
I had physiotherapie few days I was not able to do something i the morning at the therapie BUT in the evening I was doing it freely ...
Honestly I had the operation at 3rd of Jan I was discharged at 13th and I can say that I am feeling good enough to go back to my work (with the previous operation I had that feeling lets say after more than 6 months) so you can compare 6 months before to a week post op now the only reason to not go is because Prof Schaar. advice me wait more ....


OK I have a lot to say and probably I am missing a lot but I will try to summarize Prof Schaar. is awesome my regret is that I did not have the money to go from the beginning with him ...He definitely see what and how should be done so you can achieve a maximum result .He was always there I was manage to see him pretty much each day after the surgery ... My recovery is miraculously fast I had a 16" bar inside me my chest looks normal and as soon the draining tubes was outside of me I was feeling fine to do everything and you can imagine how surprised I was comparing it with my previous experience last time when that time was more than 3 months ... My voice is much more dense my posture better It is not painful to stand up long hours ...Hospital Staff was very experienced and caring ....

Yes I would recommend Prof Schaar. to anyone who needs an op and even will be better to go with him even if you have to pay his knowledge and experience are on another level .. and you can see that by your recovery ...

I will stop now but if anyone want to ask me something please feel free to do so I am now 16 days post op so I can fill more or update later on(picture and etc .)now I am giving him 10 /10 (just because I can not give more)

I had my nuss redo performed in the beginning of this year by Prof Schaar. I am an international patient that needed to correct a previously failed nuss that left me with a hybrid asymmetric pectus carinatum and excavatum deformity.

Prof Schaar removed the bars that my first surgeon had put in and placed two new bars. He completely fixed my pectus excavatum. The surgery not only improved my chest, but also my posture, I could finally stand up straight. However, I currently do still have an obvious asymmetric carinatum deformity. My pec muscles also appear to have been spread further apart after the surgery creating a huge muscle division on my sternum.

My stay in Berlin was short and without any complications. I was there for approximately 10 days before I was discharged. The nurses in the ward were pleasant and the ones in the ICU were absolutely world class! I have no complaints with any of them.

I am under a year post op and still have some general discomfort which has been managed through breathing exercise and physiotherapy.
I want to conclude that it is important to choose a surgeon with experience, and only a few in the world have a level of expertise to give consistently good results. I am glad I choose Schaar for my redo.

If anyone has any questions, I would be happy to answer them. You can shoot me a message on this platform. Goodluck on your journey!!

On 7th of November I had bar (2) removal surgery at Helios Berlin-Buch hospital. Since the perfect results of basis surgery on July 2016 (I had assymetric Pectus deformity and PE/PC) that was done by proff.Schaarschmidt I didnt have any doubts that bar removal surgery I will do at the same hospital, by the same surgeon.
During this bar removal surgery was also made correction of rib flare and sternum to reach the best possible result.
I'm really positively surprised of quickly recovery after surgery and happy that post-operative process went without any complications. This just means that surgery was made professionally by experienced surgeon arms. Now it's one week after surgery and I almost don't have a feeling that I had any surgery.

The best memories from surgery & hospital:
- the best surgeon of Pectus deformities (experience, always positive and smiling that creates a safety and trust)
- supportive team (helping on daily activities as well to make first steps after surgery! Team is acting really like a family helping the patients. Always motivating to get up)
- appropriate pain management (you don't need to worry about extreme pain, doctors will control that)
- positive attitude and atmosphere in hospital

Correction of my Pectus deformity is my best medical experience ever. I'm thankful for such opportunity I had for achieving better life! I highly recommend proff. Schaarschmidt for correction of Pectus deformities!

In case of any questions and detailed recommendations, you're welcome to contact me personally: [email protected]