A. A. Desai1, H. Alemayehu1, B. G. Dalton1, K. W. Schnell1, S. D. St. Peter1, C. L. Snyder1 1Children’s Mercy Hospital- University Of Missouri Kansas City,Kansas City, MO, USA
Introduction: The underlying cause of most chest wall deformities is not clearly understood. A small fraction are associated with connective tissue diseases, with associated systemic skeletal abnormalities. Other than scoliosis, no other skeletal abnormalities are commonly associated with congenital chest wall deformities. We investigated the clinical observation that children with pectus defects appeared to be, on average, taller than unaffected children.
Methods: A retrospective institutional review board approved review was conducted of all patients with pectus excavatum and pectus carinatum seen in our outpatient congenital wall deformity clinic from January 2011 to June 2013. Demographic data including age at presentation, weight, height, body mass index (BMI) and gender were collected and compared to national cohort as published by the Center for Disease Control Clinical Growth Charts. Two-tailed t-test was used for statistical analysis.
Results: A total of 360 patients (280 males and 80 females) were identified in the study period. The mean and median percentile for height among males was 70.9 and 80.3, and the mean and median percentile for height among females was 67 and 69.5. The mean and median percentile for weight among males was 56.6 and 54, and for females was 46 and 50 (Figure 1). There was no significant difference between mean percentile height (p=0.1) or weight (p=0.12) between genders. There was no significant difference in percentile of height (p=0.12) or weight (p=0.75) in patients with pectus carinatum and pectus excavatum.
Conclusions: Patients with congenital chest wall deformity do have increased height when compared to the national cohort. The average weight of patients with congenital chest wall defects is similar to the national cohort, accounting for the lower BMI. The increased height and decreased BMI may be associated with general growth abnormalities seen with chest wall deformities.
