Systematic review of physiological and psychological outcomes of surgery for pectus excavatum supporting commissioning of service in the UK

Background: Pectus excavatum (PEx) is the most common congenital chest wall abnormality affecting 1 in 400 births in the UK. PEx is associated with significant physiological and psychological impairment. While readily surgically correctable, the benefits that surgery can bring have been debated and proven difficult to objectively measure. In the UK, this has led to the decommissioning of PEx surgery. The aim of this review is to conduct a systematic search of the literature on PEx surgery to assess physiological and psychological outcomes.

Methods: A systematic review of the MEDLINE (PubMed), Embase and Cochrane databases was performed. Articles were sought which included patients undergoing surgery for PEx and reported on changes in cardiopulmonary measures, symptoms, quality of life and psychological assessments before and after surgical repair. Last search was performed in July 2022 and relevant findings were synthesised by narrative review.

Results: Fifty-one articles were included in qualitative synthesis, with 34 studies relating to physiological outcomes and 17 studies relating to psychological and quality of life measures. Twenty-one studies investigated pulmonary function at rest. There was no change in forced vital capacity or forced expiratory volume in 1 second following open repair and transient reductions followed closed repair. In the 11 studies investigating echocardiography, transthoracic rarely demonstrated cardiac compression; however, transoesophageal demonstrated intraoperative relief in cardiac compression in severe cases. Sixteen studies investigated exercise testing (cardiopulmonary exercise testing, CPET), 12 of which demonstrated significant improvement following surgery, both in maximal oxygen consumption and oxygen pulse. Seventeen studies investigated quality of life, all but one of which showed improvement following repair of PEx. All papers that reported on patient satisfaction following surgery found high rates, between 80% and 97%.

Discussion: While the majority of studies to date have been small and data heterogeneous, the literature shows that for many patients with PEx, there exists a cardiopulmonary limitation that while difficult to objectify, is likely to improve with surgical repair. Resting parameters offer little yield in aiding this except in the most severe cases. CPET therefore offers a better option for dynamic assessment of this limitation and improvements following repair. Surgery significantly improves psychological well-being and quality of life for patients with PEx.