Cardiac Function During Mini-Invasive Repair of Pectus Excavatum With the Nuss Procedure

Abstract

The aim of the study was to analyze cardiac function during Nuss procedure under the combination of general anesthesia with different variants of the regional block. Materials and methods: The observative prospective study included 60 adolescents (boys/girls=47/13) undergone Nuss procedure for pectus excavatum correction under the combination of general anaesthesia and regional blocks. The patients were randomized into three groups (n=20 in each) according to the perioperative regional analgesia technique: standart epidural anaesthesia (SEA), high epidural anaesthesia (HEA) and bilateral paravertebral anaesthesia (PVA). The following parameters of cardiac function were analyzed: heart rate, estimated cardiac output (esCCO), cardiac index (esCCI), stroke volume (esSV) and stroke volume index (esSVI) using non-invasive monitoring. Results: Induction of anesthesia and regional blocks led to a significant decrease in esCCO (-9.4%) and esCCI (-9.8%), while esSV and esSVI remained almost unchanged in all groups (H=4.9; p=0.09). At this stage, the decrease in cardiac output was mainly due to decreased heart rate. At the stage of sternal elevation we found an increase in esSV, which was more pronounced in the groups of epidural blocks (+23.1% in HEA and +18.5% in SEA). After awakening from anesthesia and tracheal extubation esSV was by 11% higher than before surgery without ingergroup difference. Conclusions: The Nuss procedure for pectus excavatum correction lead to improved cardiac function. increase in stroke volume and its index were more informative than cardiac output and cardiac index which are dependent on heart rate that is under the influence of anaesthesia technique.