A prospective study on quality of life in youths after pectus excavatum correction

Abstract

The improvement of physical and psychosocial HRQL reported by both patients and their parents as proxy indicates the psychological implications of the deformity. Patients reported impaired physical function compared to controls. Further, pre-surgery differences in HRQL between the patients and the controls were lacking. However, the improvement in the patients' HRQL following surgery may justify the correction of pectus excavatum. The effect of the deformity on patients wellbeing compared with controls' needs to be addressed in further studies.