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Eur J Cardiothorac Surg 2006;30:687
© 2006 Elsevier Science NL

Letters to the Editor

Vacuum treatment of pectus excavatum

Department of Pediatric Surgery, University Medical Center Mainz, Langenbeckstr. 1, 55101 Mainz, Germany

Received 14 June 2006; accepted 5 July 2006.

^_* Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 6131 172034; fax: +49 6131 175533. (Email: schier{at}kinderchir.klinik.uni-mainz.de).

Key Words: Pectus excavatum • Vacuum cup • Suction cup

The article by Haecker and Mayr [1] describes an interesting concept for the treatment of pectus excavatum. The idea of pulling the depressed chest out by applying a vacuum cup was conceived as early as a century ago. This is acknowledged by the authors. However, the vacuum cup described in the article was recently developed by Mr Klobe, an engineer suffering himself from a pectus excavatum, in order to treat himself without surgery. Mr Klobe, alive, well, and now without pectus, is not mentioned in the article. We feel this is unfair. He deserves full credit, even if the device some day will be found not to meet all our clinical expectations. From the beginning, Mr Klobe was ignored by all physicians he approached. We do not want this to continue. The undersigned eventually introduced the vacuum cup into clinical use and published preliminary results in 2005 [2].

Also, the article contains pictures which already were published a year ago with the same publisher on the same subject [2]. The identical pictures can be seen there.

Obviously the author had no problem with neglecting the first authorship, ignoring the inventor's originatorship and reusing pictures published previously. The reviewers did not check Medline for previous publications on the subject.

Nevertheless, the vacuum cup is a treatment modality of interest to the readership of European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. It may prove a valuable adjunct to the traditional treatment of low-grade pectus excavatum. However, more patients are required in order to allow a definitive judgement.

References

1. Haecker FM, Mayr J. The vacuum bell for treatment of pectus excavatum: an alternative to surgical correction?. Eur J Cardiothorac Surg 2006;29(4):557-561.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
2. Schier F, Bahr M, Klobe E. The vacuum chest wall lifter: an innovative, nonsurgical addition to the management of pectus excavatum. J Pediatr Surg 2005;40(3):496-500.[CrossRef][Medline]

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Personal Folders Download to citation manager Permission Requests Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Schier, F. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Schier, F. Related Collections Chest wall