Table 1. Vacuum bell therapy—general information.
| Values | |
|---|---|
| Specialty (47 different institutions) | |
| Pediatric surgery | 56.5% |
| Thoracic surgery | 41.3% |
| Plastic surgery | 2.2% |
| Country/region | |
| Europe | 61.7% |
| South America | 19.15% |
| USA/Canada | 8.5% |
| Asia | 6.4% |
| Australia | 2.13% |
| Africa | 2.13% |
| Do you treat patients with CWDs? | |
| Under the age of 10 years | 51% |
| Aged 10 to 20 years | 91.5% |
| Older than 20 years | 64% |
| Do you offer surgical repair of PE? | |
| MIRPE | 91.5% |
| Open repair | 40% |
| Other techniques | 23.4% |
| No surgery | 4.3% |
| Do you offer VBT for PE? | |
| Yes | 72.4% |
| No | 27.6% |
| Not available | 3 (6.4%) |
| Not covered by insurance | 3 (6.4%) |
| Not convinced | 2 (4.2%) |
| Not yet started, but want to | 1 (2.1%) |
CWD, chest wall deformity; PE, pectus excavatum; MIRPE, minimally invasive repair of pectus excavatum; VBT, vacuum bell therapy.