Metal allergies and the Nuss bar

At least it was not a wound infection, but now what?

Patients who have a previously unrecognized allergy to metal and undergo a Nuss repair with a stainless steel bar can present with a picture of wound infection after bar placement.  Although not as detrimental as a wound infection, metal allergies are not to be taken lightly.

Contact dermatitis from the Nuss bar is a type IV delayed hypersensitivity reaction that occurs in response to one of the components of stainless steel, usually Zinc or Chromium.  The reaction can range from mild with localized dermatitis, to a more systemic inflammatory response.  Patients occasionally simply present with chronic fatigue.

Preoperative screening for metal allergies should include inquiry about personal or family history of metal allergies (specifically ask for problems with metal touches the skin, not just "does anyone in the family have metal allergies").  Even in the absence of a history of atopy, some recommend screening all patients with a patch test that identifies such allergies (T.R.U.E test or AllergEAZE).

In a recent study by Shah et al, the authors recommended testing all patients preoperatively, regardless of family or personal history of allergy, as they recognized a higher incidence of metal allergy (6.4%) than previously reported (2.2%).

Once metal allergy is identified, patients can be treated with a course of steroids, and removal of the bar can be avoided in most cases.

Suction device for correction of pectus excavatum

Some information to file under the "good to know" category.

The suction bell  is a device that uses negative pressure (15% below atmospheric) to pull the sternum out and into a more natural position.  The principle involves repetitive intermittent use until the deformity is corrected.

In a paper by F. Haecker, the author describes a wide range of applications times, but recommends twice daily application for 30 minutes at a minimum. After the device is positioned over the deformity, the patient uses a hand pump to apply negative pressure, which instantaneously pulls the sternum up. The duration of use is limited by pain and the development of a transient subcutaneous hematoma in most of the patients.

Long term results are not available, but over a short period of use, patients experience "dramatic" results.  In the aforementioned paper, the author reports a sternal elevation of 1.5 cm in 70% of patients within a 3 month period. Again, patient dedication and level of commitment being a major determinant of outcome.  Additionally, the author suggest that the best results tend to occur in patients with milder forms of symmetric pectus excavatum.

Needless to say, this sounds like a very promising non-operative option, though the jury is still out on what is the optimal application protocol is as well as long term results and durability of the correction

The "correction index" as a measure of severity of pectus excavatum.

Pectus excavatum is a condition where the sternum and adjacent ribs develop in an abnormal way, resulting in a depression in the middle of the chest.  The consequences of the depression are mainly esthetic, but may affect lung and cardiac function (controversial evidence)

Figure 1

The Haller index (Figure 1) has been classically used as a measure of the severity of the pectus deformity, where a HI >3.25 is considered an indication for consideration for surgical correction.

An innate fault of this measurement, as St Peter et al pointed out in their paper, is the fact that this number relies heavily on the cross sectional diameter of the chest (Figure 1; measurement a), which varies between patients.  They noted that when they measured the HI in patients with a pectus deformity, there was a 45% cross-over with normal patients. Essentially, the authors suggest that the HI is not a reliable measure of severity of a pectus deformity.

Figure 2

As an alternative, the authors recommend using a measurement they referred to as the correction index (Figure 2).  Simply put, CI is the ratio of the anticipated rise in the sternal defect after bar placement (Figure 2; measurement a-b), to the maximal anterior to posterior dimension of the inner chest, multiplied by 100.

The question then becomes, what CI should be used as an indication for surgery?  The authors suggested that a 10% or higher CI reflects a pectus deformity severe enough to warrant correction.