Anesthetic management of pediatric patients with pectus excavatum

Abstract

Introduction: Pectus excavatum is a congenital deformity of the anterior chest wall. Not evident at birth, it fully develops during childhood and adolescence, and may constitute a relevant functional, psychosocial and aesthetic problem for the sufferer. Its physiopathogeny is attributed to the abnormal growth of the costal cartilages. The incidence of pectus excavatum in our country is not negligible. A small number of patients have been operated on, but there are few published references on the topic.
Objective: describe the multimodal anesthetic procedure used in a patient with pectus excavatum.
Clinical case: 15-year-old male patient with clinical and spirometric restrictive respiratory disorders hindering his physical activity. The deformity was corrected by conventional surgical treatment under multimodal anesthesia. The patient had a stable transoperative period and was extubated upon arrival at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). During the postoperative period he received analgesia through an epidural catheter when Analog Visual Scale (AVS) values for postoperative pain were greater than 5.
Conclusions: the use of multimodal anesthesia in a pediatric patient enabled the satisfactory correction of a pectus excavatum. This technique for the surgical correction of this condition may be generalized in specialized health facilities in the country.