It's called pectus excavatum—a chest wall malformation that affects one in 400 children. "It comes in different shapes and forms so not everybody is the same. There's a full spectrum of different types of congenital malformations. The majority don't need surgery," explained Dr. Andre Hebra, a pediatric surgeon on the medical staff of Lee Health.
But if the condition worsens as the child grows—it can cause difficulty breathing and compression on the heart and lungs. "I was scared because if I didn’t do the surgery, I could have heart problems in the future and I just thought the best thing was to do the surgery," said Jake Knutson, a patient of Dr. Hebra.
Jake had his first surgery when he was 10—now 13, the symptoms have become worse—making him a good candidate for surgery.
"He is a perfect candidate for the minimally invasive repair of pectus excavatum which is a microscopic procedure, minimally invasive, that allows us to insert a stainless steel bar behind the sternum that pushes the sternum out and takes the compression away from the heart and it corrects the caved in deformity of the chest," said Dr. Hebra.
Dr. Hebra uses a surgical technique called cryoablation to minimize pain during and after the procedure. "That allows us to numb up and freeze the nerves so during the procedure and after the procedure, the patient has minimal pain because those nerves are blocked," he explained.
Offering patients like Jake a quicker and better recovery. "It will be nice that it’s fixed and normal," said Jake.
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Lee Health in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of health care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For more than 100 years, we’ve been providing our community with personalized preventative health services and primary care to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries. Lee Health - Caring People. Inspiring Care.
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