Dr. Klaus Schaarschmidt

dr. schaarschmidt is probably one of the 5 best surgeons in the entire world. If you live in Europe, hes the best. cant complain about anything

I'm a 28 year old New Zealander who had Nuss/reverse Nuss performed at Helios Klinikum (Berlin-Buch). I've had a noticeable pectus deformity since early childhood and have tolerated the physical issues which typically arise from it since teenage-hood; e.g. ever-present shortness of breath, chest discomfort during exercise, reduced stamina, poor posture etc. For most of my life, I've wanted to repair my chest in order to increase my quality of life by resolving these issues. I wasn't so concerned about the cosmetic aspect, though in retrospect, I very much appreciate that my chest now looks completely normal!

Based on my internet research over the years, I decided that Professor Schaarschmidt would be the best choice of surgeon, given that he is renowned as one of the best in the world, and the cost of operation is not only comparatively reasonable but considerably lower than various hospitals in the US/England. Nevertheless, I spent 6 months going through the NZ public health system in an attempt to obtain a proper diagnosis for my condition and gauge/prove how much it affects my sleep and breathing. Frankly, it was a joke. Some of the doctors had never heard of pectus excavatum, despite it being relatively common. Even more experienced consultants and surgeons dismissed my concerns, and by the end, I had received a vague patchy diagnosis of having 'some variant of PE which they didn't understand' and couldn't be bothered researching.

By contrast, I met with Prof. Schaarschmidt 6 months prior to my surgery and within 10 seconds of seeing my chest, he instantly diagnosed me with Currarino-Silverman syndrome, a PE/PC hybrid. He clearly outlined the physiological effects of this condition and the prognosis if left untreated. He told me it was trickier to repair than regular PE or PC, but quite doable.

I opted for surgery and had the sandwich operation performed which involved two bars being inserted, one to treat the PE and one to treat the PC. The operation itself went quite smoothly, and I was able to transfer from intensive care to the regular ward after 2 days. My pain and discomfort was actually lower than expected and quite manageable. My main annoyance at the time was not being able to shower myself until I had my catheters removed after a week :)

The physiotherapist gave me 3 breathing machines which I was to use every waking hour, in order to increase my lung capacity and train my chest to deal with its new anatomy. As soon as possible after the op, I engaged in physical exercise such as walking up and down stairs and around the hospital, and using the exercise bike. My in-hospital recovery was generally quite smooth except that I had pleural effusion which had to be punctured before I was discharged after 18 days and unfortunately recurred until 5-6 weeks post-op. But it was absolutely no problem for me to return to the hospital for a further puncture and another checkup later after that. Anyhow, pleural effusion is a semi-common problem after any sort of chest surgery, and it resolves itself before too long.

After 3 weeks, I was able to travel alone and support myself without much issue. After 4 weeks, I returned to work. After 6 weeks, I was able to go jogging and cut out pain medication (nightly ibuprofen). And now, 10 weeks post-op, I am returning to the gym to resume weight-training and cardio.

Overall, I'm pleased with the result, physically and cosmetically. Prof. Schaarschmidt is a very professional, experienced and understanding surgeon, unafraid of even the most difficult cases. Even in spite of the fact that I speak no German, the nurses were nice, competent and helpful. I would certainly recommend Prof. Schaarschmidt and Helios Kliniken to anyone looking to repair their pectus problem, and I'll be returning for bar removal in 3 years time.

Hi to all of you out there with a pectus deformity.
I am a Greek pharmacist that lives and works in Sweden 2 years now.Since my adolescense ,age of 15-16 ,i have been struggling with a pectus deformity,which is called pectus carinatum as i discovered later.My pectus carinatum influenced a big part of my life especially my personal one and made me feel less and inadequate.A bumb of about 6 centimeteres in the right side of my chest played a negative role that should never play.I always tried to fix it either with weight lifting and proper protein nutrition or with clothing that would hide and conceal the problem.It was only 3 years ago,after extensive google searching when i found out not only that there are many individuals with the same agonizing problem but that there is also a surgical procedure out there promising a pectus carinatum free life.This procedure was immediately ranked in my top 5 priorities.
In Europe the first choice to have the operation would be in Berlin by professor Klaus Schaarschmidt and his team. I had read many reviews and experiences from other patients before took the decision to undergo the procedure in Germany.All the expenditure were paid by a loan i had taken from a swedish bank and my personal savings ,and there is also a possibility to get back some of the money or even the whole amount when i hand over the receipts in the swedish health system.So as you can realise i was really determined to get rid of this obstacle in my life no matter what.
The surgery was planned for the 26th of July after having exchanged several emails with the doctor who also evaluated the severity of my condition through some photos taken by me.I arrived in Berlin 2 days earlier with my parents ,both of them stayed in a pension located nearby.I was admitted to the clinic one day before the surgery in order to do some necessary preliminary tests like x-rays ,blood testing... and also in order to be properly examined by the doctor.The surgery lasted about 4,5 hours as my parents explained later.The most important things to notice through my days in the intensive care are that the pain management was amazing.the nurses were very helpful and supportive and my progress and improvement were much faster than i could ever imagine.The pain was effectively controlled via en epidural and the only somehow painful activity was to do breathing exercises with 2 drains inside my chest.Moreover one common and the only complication that occurred was air between my chest and left lung which was treated by the re-insertion of the left drain that was probably too early removed.Other positive aspects to notice are that i walked from day one and that the overall pain experience is already a distant blur memory -only 2 weeks have passed since i had the surgery-.After the intensive care i was moved to the children department where i stayed for 5 days.Things there were much easier there considering i was significantly much better psysically .
The results of the surgery are very satisfying however not perfect -i dont know if they could ever be so.There is still a small bumb which the doctor said that can be fixed together with the bar removal and the reattachment after 2-3 years.However my chest is 90 percent normal so i am satisfied with the results and would definately recommend the procedure by drSchaarschmidt to all of you that are thinking having it.3 things you also must have in mind are that you will wear a special bandage for about a month,you must do your breathing exercises everyday for a month and last but not least it is possible to live a life without pectus carinatum -i am one of the many living examples.Thank you dr Schaarschmidt.!!!

I got in touch with Dr. Schaarschmidt after I had done a modified ravitch procedure which resulted in aesthetical and minor fysical complications. The upper part of my chest was still caved in, as wel as a small dent on the right side. During examination he was very confident that he could fix all the problems and convinced me to get a redo surgery as soon as possible because if I wasn't I was going to have major complications later on. No scans were made, he said he didn't need to see them. I arrived in the hospital a day before surgery, as I live in Belgium, not Germany. Surgery was due the next day at 9 am. I came there by myself, had no one with me. 90 % of the nurses didn't speak English. On the day of the surgery, they made me wait until 5 pm, I had to stay sober, nobody seemed to know when the surgery was actually going to happen. Finally they took me to the OR where I had to wait another hour on the surgery bed, literally stressing for my live. They had to puncture my spinal cord three times for the epidural because they didn't do it right. Finally when the doctor was about to get in, the nurse came and get me and told me the doctor already went home and the surgery would continue tomorrow. Again surgery was scheduled at 9 am. Again they kept me waiting until 3 pm. After surgery, I woke up with excruciating pain. They put me in the mid-care unit, in the children section for some reason, in the same room with a newborn crying baby. I asked to be put in another room, they said they didn't have any, obviously I couldn't do a thing, I couldn't even walk. I stayed there for 3 days barely slept because of the pain and the ongoing crying baby. until they moved me to another room. In the end I stayed in the hospital for 12 days. I got 2 new scars, he didn't reopen the old ones like Dr Schaarschmidt said, both are around 15 cm long. But the worst part, he didn't even fix half of the issues he assured me he would fix. On confronting him during the sole time I saw him during those 12 days he said it only looked like that and it would get better once it healed. Of course it didn't, it got worse. A lot worse. I have to admit, the upper part of my chest was very well done, it looked much better than before, the dent was gone for the most part, it looked natural. The dent on the right side on the other hand got bigger. During a full year the lower bar of the 2 he inserted caused a lot of pain, especially during movement, but basically all the time. This took a high toll on my social life and had a big psychological impact. Upon check up Schaarschmidt's first thought was to remove the bars. I asked if it was a possibility that te bar was poorly placed hence causing the pain and if it was possible to replace it with another more well placed bar. I didn't want to come all that way, have three surgeries just to remove the bars after a year so my chest could possibly cave in again. Dr Schaarschmidt said that replaceing the bar could indeed fix the pain caused by it. On year post my third pectus surgery, first one with Dr Schaarschmidt, I got another surgery performed by Schaarschmidt to replace the lower bar. He promised me he would fix the issues he didn't fix the first time. Guess what, same scenario happend again. On the day of the surgery they kept me waiting a full day to tell me the surgery would be postponed to the next day. The surgery took place, again I woke up with a lot of pain, I was coughing blood. No children mid-care this time. The nurses again didn't speak English and were very rude. The beds looked like they were from the 80's, very bad wi-fi which you had to pay for, I didn't feel comfortable at all. I had to stay in the hospital for 10 days. I was in a lot of pain and my chest didn't feel right from the beginning. When I asked the staff if I could see the doctor they always said he would come tomorrow, then it was after the weekend. After waiting for a week or so, they told me he went on a holiday. Without even telling me. I felt really abandoned and lost. There were some other doctors for checkups, but they didn't have the same knowledge about my situation. There was one doctor who was there during surgery who told me the old lower bar was sticking out several centimeters to the side, that's what caused the pain. None of the issues Dr. Schaarschmidt was supposed to fix the first and now the second time were fixed. the coming year I was in an even greater discomfort and pain caused by the lower bar. I had to drop out of University. One year after my Fourth, second with Schaarschmidt, surgery I got the bars taken out by him. And yet again on the day of the surgery he kept me waiting an additional day. More so a patient from New-zealand, who also came in for bar removal, arrived in the hospital on the day my surgery was initially scheduled. He got surgery the next day before me, what he hell? He payed the surgery out of his pocket. Mine was mostly covered by my insurance.It was a couple of thousand euro's cheaper than his. Apparently Dr Schaarschmidt asks more money when you pay for the surgery your self. Again he promised me he would fix the remaining issues I had. For the remaining dent on the right he would either 'undent' it from the inside while removing the bars' (I can't imagine how he would have done that) or he would put a small vertical bar were the dent is. I told him to fix it at all cost because the dent was causing pain and discomfort. I told him explicably to put in the small bar. He said he would. When I woke up, I had slim to no pain. Of course he didn't insert the small vertical bar. The dent on the right remained and got even bigger. I had to stay in the hospital for 5 days. I saw him in his office on the last day after waiting hours in the hallway. I asked him why he didn't insert the small vertical bar like he was going to. He said he didn't think it was necessary and that it was only a small dent. Then he showed me some pictures of his most severe cases and said mine was fine. I felt mad, sad, disappointed. I healed quite quickly. The pain and discomfort from the lower bar was gone. I still had pain and discomfort on the dent on the right side. My chest caved in a little bit. I had physical therapy on a weekly basis and after a year I started lifting weights. That really helped reducing the pain a lot. Instead of 5 days a week with pain, after some months of going to the gym 3 times a week, got me to 1 or 2 days a week with pain. I've been doing that for a year and a half now. When I don't hit the gym for a couple of days my chest starts to hurt more. So in a way it's a good motivation, and a pleasant side effect is that I look good. It took me some time to write this review. I wanted to wait things out, see how it would evolve. We are now nearly 3 years after my bars were removed. This whole journey of 6 surgeries was horrifying and traumatic. I'm still experiencing more pain and discomfort than I ever had before my very first surgery. I think Schaarschimdt can deliver good results, but with me, except from the upper chest on which I think he did a really good job, in overal experience he did not. I am very very disappointed in how he communicated, how he was so convinced and promised he would fix all the issues and when he didn't he merely said it wasn't necessary anymore and that there were more severe cases than me. Come on. He ignored my e-mails I send him after bar removal, asking him tips on what to do. I wonder how long I am going to be able to bare this discomfort in my chest. I contacted Dr Pilegaard and Dr Jaroszewski right after my bar removal. Pilegaard said he didn't want to perform surgey because he wans't sure if he could help me, on which I appreciate his honesty. Dr Jaroszewski said she couldn't help me. So yeah, for now with going to the gym I can suppress most of the pain, but sometimes I wonder if there is a future for me where I can be completely pain free. If you're getting into this, get a good doctor, and ask yourself if you need surgery in the first place. I would recommend seeing Dr Pilegaard in Denmark, his results look stunning, hospital seemed really nice, and he is a genuine guy. I wish you all the best luck.

Briek