Pectus - Patient and Family Education

Cincinnati Children's is the only pediatric hospital with an inpatient integrative care team consisting of about 15 holistic health specialists.

Massage therapy can reduce pain and anxiety, decrease cortisol levels, and enhance relaxation in pectus repair patients.

Energy therapies (Reiki and healing touch) are biofield therapies that work to restore harmony and balance within the body and can be performed hands-on or hands-off.

A 2009 retrospective database review of 519 patients showed that massage therapy and healing touch reduced pain and anxiety scores by 50% in 50% of patients.

Physical therapy evaluates pectus patients on the first postoperative day and teaches them to get out of bed using a crunch-to-sit-up technique without using arms to push or pull.

Pectus repair patients have strict precautions against bending, twisting, and rolling postoperatively.

All pectus patients and families are required to attend a preoperative education class before scheduled surgery.

The preoperative class covers expectations for testing, hospital stay, recovery room experience, epidural placement, and postoperative devices including compression boots, Foley catheter, and incentive spirometer.

The SSI (surgical site infection) bundle for pectus patients includes screening all patients for metal allergy, MRSA, and staph, with treatment using Bactroban if positive.

The SSI bundle has been in place for almost 3 years and was developed through literature review and collaboration with infectious disease.

Most pain in Ehlers-Danlos patients is muscle-based or from muscle attachments rather than arthritis or bone pain.

70% of adult patients with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome experience blacking out sensation or dizziness with standing associated with racing heartbeat (POTS).

Ehlers-Danlos patients with POTS phenotype have overactivity of the sympathetic nervous system, leading to panic, anxiety, sleep dysfunction, and chronic fatigue.

Sympathetic nervous system overactivity in Ehlers-Danlos patients shuts down parasympathetic digestive functions, causing nausea or abdominal pain immediately after eating.

Ehlers-Danlos patients with POTS should use recumbent exercise (bike or rowing machine) or aquatic-based therapy rather than upright exercise like treadmills, which cause immediate dizziness and tachycardia.

Aquatic-based therapy supports blood flow to the brain in Ehlers-Danlos patients with dysautonomia.

Recumbent or aquatic exercise protocols in Ehlers-Danlos patients have shown improvements in chronic fatigue, sleep dysfunction, and pain sensitivity.