Abstract
Due to increased awareness and recent advances in the
minimally invasive repair of #PectusExcavatum (PE), a growing
number of PE patients are considering corrective treatment. But
patients and clinicians are faced with a pressing question: What
are the indications for surgery? Due to the paucity of prospective
PE studies, data-driven guidelines are currently lacking. The
#Hallerindex (HI) has emerged as the predominant way to identify
patients for which surgical treatment is most appropriate. Under
this premise, patients with higher HI values – indicating a more
severe chest deformity – are more likely to pursue and/or benefit
from surgery. However, evidence is accumulating that HI may not
accurately portray the underlying #physiologicdisruption or the
symptoms associated with PE. In this Viewpoint, we discuss the
origin of HI and describe its widespread use in practice today,
despite its possible shortcomings, as well as alternative approaches
for evaluating PE #severity.
Moving Beyond the #Haller Index as a Measure of #Pectus Excavatum #Severity by Robert S Eisinger in BJSTR
