New magnet treatment used to correct sunken chest

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 8, 2007 (KGO) -- UCSF has created a groundbreaking new procedure to treat chest deformities in children and teens. This minimally invasive procedure is already transforming one 14-year-old's life.

"Whenever I'd go to the beach, I'd wear my shirt, but I wouldn't take it off," said sunken chest patient Richard Nave.

Richard Nave felt extremely self-conscious about his chest. He was born with a congenital disorder called pectus excavatum - or sunken chest.

"What it is, is a deformation of these cartilage pieces that connect your ribs to your breast bone and in this case, they push to the breast bone way back inside so the kids have a big funnel in their chest, a big hole," said UCSF pediatric surgeon Dr. Michael Harrison.

"I just felt like I wasn't normal," said Nave.

Until now, doctors have had to split open a child's chest and insert a rod forcing the bones into alignment. It's an extremely painful procedure that requires months of recovery. It inspired UCSF pediatric surgeon Michael Harrison to come up with a better, more humane approach using magnets.

His first patient: 14-year-old Richard.

"I'm the first person like to have this one so that feels kind of cool," said Nave.

His mother was a bit worried.

"That was really scary at first because you don't want to be a guinea pig and something go wrong," said Richard's mom Gina Nave.

Three months ago Richard went in for surgery. Dr. Harrison made a few small incisions to attach a powerful magnet to Richard's sunken breast bone. After healing, he was fitted with an external brace equipped with a second magnet.

The goal of this magnetic mover procedure is to have the external magnet slowly pull the internal magnet, eventually bringing Richard's chest to a normal position.

"We want you to have this pull as hard as it can that's comfortable for you," said Dr. Harrison.

Today Richard is back for a checkup to see if the fit of the brace and the amount of magnetic pull is correct.

"We're always working on trying to improve the self-adjustability component of the brace," said orthotist Darrell Christensen, C.O.

Just like an orthodontist slowly tightens a child's dental braces, both the doctors - and even Richard - can adjust how strongly the external magnet pulls on the internal one.

"It just gradually push you know pulls pulls pulls pulls and so far it's moving pretty well," said Dr. Harrison.

An improvement in Richard's chest is already apparent.

"Its like really cool now," said Nave.

It will take several more months to finish the process, but Richard is already proud to be a medical pioneer.

UCSF is going to do ten patients in these early clinical trials and are currently recruiting children from eight to fourteen years of age.

Click here to learn more about the sunken chest treatment at UCSF.

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