Wenlin procedure: An ideal minimally invasive surgery for barrel chest

Abstract

Barrel chest is often seen in patients with chronic lung diseases. It is a secondary lesion and generally does not require treatment. Teenagers or adults with barrel chest are primary deformities. Its harm mainly comes from two aspects, one is physiological harm, the other is psychological harm. If the harm is obvious, surgical treatment is required. No one has ever treated this deformity before. Through a large-scale study of chest wall deformities, we found that there were similar structural changes between barrel chest and pectus carinatum, and they all belonged to protrusion deformity. The similarity of the structures make it possible to use for reference in surgical treatment. We designed an ideal operation for pectus carinatum, that is, Wenlin procedure. After research, it was found that this operation can also be used in the treatment of barrel chest. We performed the operation on barrel chest with this procedure and achieved satisfactory results. This paper introduces the operation of a tall barrel chest patient. During the operation, Wenlin procedure was used, and the results turned out to be satisfactory.