title: Pectus Excavatum and Pectus Carinatum: Associated Conditions, Family History, and Postoperative Patient Satisfaction.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Pectus excavatum (PE) and pectus carinatum (PC) are the most common chest wall deformities. In this study, we aimed to characterize how patients obtained information about these deformities, as well as patients' family history, associated medical problems, and postoperative satisfaction after the Nuss and Abramson procedures.
  
  
  METHODS
  This cross-sectional retrospective study included patients who were operated by a single surgeon between 2006 and 2013. Follow-up calls were made after approval of our institution's ethics committee. We reached 207 of the 336 PE patients (61.6%) and 73 of the 96 PC patients (76%).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The majority of the patients were male (85% of the PE patients and 91.8% of the PC patients). The age of diagnosis of PE was 14.52±0.51 years and the age at the time of operation was 17.89±0.42 years; for PC patients, the corresponding ages were 15.23±0.55 years and 16.77±0.55 years, respectively. A total of 70% of the PE patients and 63.8% of the PC patients obtained information about pectus deformities through the Internet. In 27.1% of the PE patients with an associated anomaly, 57.1% (n=13) had scoliosis, while 41.1% of the PC patients with an associated anomaly had kyphosis (n=5). Postoperative satisfaction, as evaluated on a scale from 0 to 10, was 8.17±0.15 for PE patients and 8.37±0.26 for PC patients. The postoperative pain duration was 51.93±5.18 days for PE patients and 38.5±6.88 days for PC patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this study, we found that most patients with pectus deformities were male. The Internet was an important resource for patients to learn about their deformities. Family history and associated anomalies were identified as important aspects for consideration in the clinical setting. The patients reported high levels of postoperative satisfaction, and pain management was found to be one of the most important elements of postoperative care.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Marmara University School of Medicine.
authors.forename: Pinar
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kuru
authors.affiliation: Marmara University School of Medicine.
authors.forename: Aylin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cakiroglu
authors.affiliation: Marmara University School of Medicine.
authors.forename: Aynur
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Er
authors.affiliation: Marmara University School of Medicine.
authors.forename: Hincal
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ozbakir
authors.affiliation: Marmara University School of Medicine.
authors.forename: Ali Emin
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Cinel
authors.affiliation: Marmara University School of Medicine.
authors.forename: Busra
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cangut
authors.affiliation: Marmara University School of Medicine.
authors.forename: Merve
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Iris
authors.affiliation: Marmara University School of Medicine.
authors.forename: Berkay
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Canbaz
authors.affiliation: Marmara University School of Medicine.
authors.forename: Ebru
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pıçak
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic Surgery, Marmara University School of Medicine.
authors.forename: Mustafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yuksel
keywords: Funnel chest; Pectus carinatum