Placement of pectus bar for pectus excavatum (Nuss procedure)

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has issued full guidance to the NHS in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland on minimally invasive placement of pectus bar in August 2003.

NICE has reviewed this guidance and is reassessing the procedure. New guidance will be published as a result.  Until the new guidance is published the NHS should continue to follow the recommendations in the guidance below.

The Interventional Procedures Advisory Committee (IPAC) has considered this procedure and NICE has issued a consultation document about its safety and efficacy. Consultation has now ended. IPAC will consider the consultation comments and produce a Final Interventional Procedures Document, which will be considered by NICE before guidance is issued to the NHS in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The consultation period for this procedure closed on the 26 May 2009.

If you wish to be alerted to developments regarding this procedure, including the release of NICE guidance, please express your interest at the top of the page.

Pectus excavatum is an abnormality of the chest in which the breastbone sinks inward (sometimes called funnel chest). Problems associated with pectus excavatum are mainly cosmetic, although the condition can impair cardiac and respiratory function. Placement of a pectus bar for pectus excavatum (also known as the Nuss procedure) involves placing one or two steel (pectus) bars under the breastbone with the aim of raising it and correcting the abnormal shape. The bar, which is bent into a curve to fit the patient’s chest, is inserted through small openings in the chest. The bar (or bars) are usually removed within a few years of placement.

Musculoskeletal
Surgical procedures

Paediatric surgery

Society of Cardiothoracic Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland

British Association of Paediatric Surgeons

Interventional Procedures Programme
National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence
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