It squeezed the child’s heart, the left lung and prevented breathing – a boy with a complex chest deformity was successfully operated on by Lviv surgeons of the Saint Nicholas Children’s Hospital. And the doctors did it in the least traumatic way possible — without an incision in the sternum.
13-year-old Ostap was born with a heart defect — transposition of the main vessels. Simply put, the child’s pulmonary artery and aorta have switched places. This threatened the baby’s life.
Ostap was urgently operated on on the sixth day after his birth. The heart defect was corrected. But after surgery, the child’s sternum shifted. Ostap developed a funnel-shaped deformity — a pronounced depression in the central and lower part of the chest frame. This is not uncommon after classical open operations with an incision in the chest. At first, this deformity was barely noticeable and did not affect the child’s quality of life. But the boy grew up and at a young age the displacement increased and began to compress the internal organs. In particular, the lungs and heart. It became difficult for Ostap to breathe. The teenager also suffered from psychological discomfort — the deformity became visually noticeable.
The family turned to the specialists of St. Nicholas Hospital for help. The only way to correct the deformity is to install a corrective plate in the chest.
A team of surgeons and cardiac surgeons got to work. They did not struggle with the operation. And they decided to do it in the least traumatic way – according to the Nuss method – with a small access. Usually, surgeons in Ukraine, in order to install a plate in the cavity after cardiosurgical operations, make an incision in the sternum – a sternotomy. It is more traumatic for the patient and with a long postoperative period. Our specialists only separated the heart from the sternum through a 5-cm incision – performed the so-called cardiolysis. And then thoracoscopically, through 5-mm punctures, a plate was inserted and attached to the ribs. This made it possible to strengthen the sternum. In a few years, as soon as Ostap’s chest takes the correct shape and becomes stronger, the doctors will remove the plate.
Eight days after the operation, Ostap will return home. The boy is doing well. Shortness of breath and unpleasant sensations in the sternum disappeared.