Evaluation of children with chest wall deformities: single center experience

ABSTRACT
Aim: Chest wall deformities may occur with abnormal development of the chest wall. It was aimed to evaluate the demographic and clinical characteristics of the children with chest wall deformity, and to investigate the relationship between the age at which the deformity was noticed and the duration until hospital admission with the type of chest wall deformity.
Materials and Methods: Data of all children with chest wall deformity in a single pediatric pulmonology center between 2023 - 2024 were evaluated retrospectively. The two most common chest wall deformity subgroups were compared in terms of demographic and clinical findings. The relationship between the age at which the deformity was noticed and the duration until the hospital admission was examined according to the type of deformity.
Results: There were 92 children with chest wall deformity; 47.8% of whom had pectus carinatum and 46.7% had pectus excavatum. The median age was 6 (0.2-17) years, the median age at which deformity was noticed was 4.3 (0-17) years and the median duration from deformity was noticed until admission was 6 (0-144) months. Pulmonary function test results were within normal limits. No statistically significant correlation was found between the age at which the deformity was noticed and the duration until admission (p=0.420).
Conclusions: In children with chest wall deformities, no effect on lung capacity was detected, likely because the deformity was noticed at a young age and the duration from detection to admission was short, regardless of the type of deformity. Nevertheless, children should be monitored because pulmonary system may be affected over time.
Keywords: Chest wall, pectus, pediatrics, pulmonary