Chest Wall Deformities
Introduction
Welcome to the APSA Quality and Safety Committee Pectus Toolkit. This toolkit is intended to help anyone who is interested in quality improvement on the management of pectus excavatum, pectus carinatum and other chest wall deformities.
Available toolkit projects are listed below. Many of the approaches described are evidence based - some are not. These approaches have not been approved by APSA.
Pectus ERAS Pathway
In 2013 the Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital began the use of a standardized perioperative practice plan for patients undergoing minimally invasive repair of pectus excavatum (MIRPE) which has resulted in a decrease in resource utilization, narcotic use and length of stay. The use of epidural anesthesia has been abandoned and replaced with a multimodal analgesic approach.
Protocol
Resources
- Postoperative order set - Hopkins (pectus)
- Patient controlled analgesia order set (pectus)
- Urinary retention algorithm (pectus)
Stakeholders: surgeons, anesthesiologists, perioperative staff, patients/parents, administration, community
Challenges and solutions: The standardized perioperative practice plan required a collaborative effort amongst services (surgery, anesthesia) as well buy in from perioperative services.
Published data: Enhancing recovery after minimally invasive repair of pectus excavatum [1]
Submitted by Raquel Gonzalez
Additional implementers: Nicole Chandler
Postoperative and Discharge Protocol
The Medical University of South Carolina uses the following standard discharge and postoperative care protocol for patients following pectus repair. There were reduced complications and length of stay following implementation of a standard postoperative physical therapy, discharge criteria and follow-up care protocols.
Resources
Stakeholders: surgery, nursing, anesthesia, radiology, rehab/physical therapists
Submitted by Rob Cina
Additional implementers: Jenny Waterhouse
Postoperative Pain Management
In 2018, the Chest Wall Program at Riley Hospital for Children implemented a multimodal postoperative pain control regimen coupled with a standardized postoperative management bundle for all patients who underwent surgical correction pectus excavatum by either Nuss or Ravitch procedure. The purpose of this program was to decrease narcotic use while providing equivalent or improved postoperative pain control.
Resources
Stakeholders: pediatric surgery, pediatric anesthesia, pediatric acute pain service, physical therapy
Challenges and solutions: surgeon by in. Solutions were two-fold. First was education. Second was seeing early successes with the use of the protocol (improved length of stay, equal or better daily pain control and decreased opioid use overall)
Abstract Early results after the implementation of the multimodal analgesic protocol for pectus repair
Submitted by Matt Landman
References
- Litz CN, Farach SM, Fernandez AM, et al. Enhancing recovery after minimally invasive repair of pectus excavatum. Pediatr Surg Int. 2017;33(10):1123-1129. [PMID:28852843]