Current Thoracic Surgery 2020 , Vol 5 , Issue 2
Comparison of anthropometric measurements and pectus index for chest wall deformities
Huseyin Yildiran1,Guven Sadi Sunam1
1Department of Thoracic Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Selcuk University, Konya, Turkey DOI : 10.26663/cts.2020.00015 Viewed : 3870 - Downloaded : 4837 Background: Pectus excavatum (PE) is the most commonly seen chest wall deformity of childhood age. One of the most widely accepted methods in preoperative patient evaluation is the pectus index. In this study, it is aimed to measure the depth perception which is not aesthetic; aimed to establish an objective criteria which is simple, cheap, effective, and can be measured with physical examination or anthropometry instead of radiological examination dependent measurements.

Materials and Methods: 18 patients who were admitted to our clinic between May 2015 and August 2016 with complaints of PE deformity and who were planned for surgical repair were included in the study. Sternal deformity’s depth, anthropometric measurements, pectus indexes, echocardiography, and pulmonary function test results and patient symptoms were classified.

Results: 18 patients were included in the study. The mean patient age was 14.27 years. One patient had mild mitral insufficiency and a flappy mitral front leaflet. One patient had mitral valve prolapse. No restrictive or obstructive results were observed in the pulmonary function test. There was no significant differences between the pectus index and sternal depth.

Conclusions: According to this study, there is a surgical indication in patients whose sternal depth is 1.2 cm and higher, regardless of the pectus index. Keywords : depth perception, pectus excavatum, sternum