Methods: We planned to evaluate durations of operation, postoperative complications, postoperative durations of hospitalization, removal durations of the bars, and operation results for 110 patients (91 males, 19 females; mean age 14.2 years; range 2.4-36 years) who were performed Nuss technique in our clinic.

Results: Two bars and two stabilizers were used in three patients. While two patients did not require stabilizer, single bar and stabilizer were used in all other patients (95.4%). Pneumothrax developed in two patients which needed tube insertion (1.8%). Since the absorbable stabilizer of one patient was broken at postoperative one month, we removed it and inserted a metal stabilizer. Bars of two patients, who developed infection, were removed due to pain intolerance. All three patients whose bars were removed were older than 25 years of age. Mean duration of hospitalization was 4.2 days (3.6 days). Bars were removed within two years at the earliest, and 3.7 years at the latest. During the removal of bars, no problem occurred other than bar adhesion to bone tissue in adult patients particularly. Patient satisfaction was 98.2% after bar removal.

Conclusion: Nuss operations have advantages including having small submammary incisions, short operation time, and small amount of bleeding. Being a minimally invasive operation compared to Ravitch operation, Nuss operation requires shorter hospitalization, has lower infection risk, and higher patient satisfaction. Still, its major problem is postoperative pain. According to our study findings, results for patients treated with Nuss operation can be considered satisfactory except for pain.