A painful surgery with far less pain

As a nurse, Maria Aggari knows the risks related to managing pain with opioids.  So, as a mother, when surgeons offered another option to her 17-year-old son before surgery, she was all too happy to listen.

Entering his senior year in high school, Matthew needed surgeons to repair a congenital deformity that had resulted in his breastbone sinking into his chest. This deformity is called pectus excavatum.  Besides causing cosmetic concerns that intensified as he moved through his teenage years, Matthew was also having trouble breathing.  It was affecting his quality of life.

“We needed to perform what’s called the Nuss procedure”, says Dr. Bethany Slater, a pediatric general surgeon at Advocate Children’s Hospital.  “This minimally invasive procedure allows us to insert curved metal bars, which over time, push the sternum back into place.”

The procedure is extremely painful and pain management post-surgery requires pain killers, like opioids. In order to limit Matthew’s pain after surgery, Dr Slater and Dr Brian Jones, another pediatric general surgeon, performed intercostal nerve cryoblation, during surgery. Simply put, using a camera inside the chest to guide them, they used a probe cooled by nitrous oxide to freeze the nerves near the impacted area.

“Matthew’s recovery was much smoother and faster than that of patients managed with an epidural catheter” says Dr. Jones. Epidural catheters were the previous method of pain management for this operation.  “He was able to get out of bed, walk, and go home sooner.  After leaving the hospital, he did not need any opioids for pain management.”

“My son and I read up a lot about the cryoblation before agreeing to it,” says Maria.  “But Matthew did great; I am so proud of him.  It was such a relief that he never required opioids, instead just Tylenol, to manage his pain. That’s good news for any mother.”