Pectus Excavatum: Surgery

(asked on 12th November 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by NHS England Clinical Commissioning Policy: Surgery for pectus deformity (all ages) Reference: 170113P, published on 22 February 2019, in particular its conclusions that existing published studies on the effectiveness of corrective pectus surgery had "serious weaknesses"; and what steps they are taking (1) to commission, and (2) to encourage, research into the effectiveness of such surgery in response to that finding.


Answered by
Lord Bethell Portrait
Lord Bethell
This question was answered on 14th January 2021

NHS England and NHS Improvement published a clinical commissioning policy in February 2019 about surgical treatment for patients with physical complications arising from pectus deformity. Following a review of clinical practice and options for treatment, they determined that there is insufficient evidence to routinely commission a surgical intervention. However, this policy states that if new evidence is presented, the position can be reviewed.

It is right that decisions about either further research required or surgical funding are made by clinical experts. The position for commissioning surgery for individuals is for clinicians to make an individual funding request where they feel it is clinically appropriate - for example because of exceptional circumstances in terms of either clinical presentation or the ability of a patient to benefit.

Reticulating Splines