Pectus Excavatum Research Paper

935 Words2 Pages

Pectus Excavatum
Pectus excavatum is congenital abnormal formation in the rib cage, which causes the sternum to grow inward, this causes the look of a sunken chest. There are mild and severe cases of pectus excavatum. If this abnormal development is left untreated, it can cause pressure on the thoracic cavity including the heart and lungs. Pectus excavatum generally appears more physically prominent in adolescence into teenage years due to puberty. This deformity causes not only side effects to their physical health, but also creates a higher level of self consciousness with their body image.
The cause of pectus excavatum is not entirely understood. It has been researched that the cause of it is irregular growth of the cartilage that connects the ribs to the sternum that occurs during pregnancy. According to Pectus excavatum: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia, 2013, October 18, some disorders can be linked with patients that have pectus excavatum, including: Marfan syndrome, Rickets due to the lack of vitamin D, scoliosis, Poland syndrome, and a family history of pectus excavatum. Even though family history is a risk factor, this anomaly can happen without a family history. Most parents are unaware of their child’s deformity until they begin to notice …show more content…

Approximately 40 percent of pectus excavatum patients have one or more family members with the same defect. Pectus excavatum occurs more often in men than in women, appearing in one per every 300 to 400 Caucasian male births.” In a study of reactions of patients 11 years and older with pectus excavatum are as follows: High degree of self-observation 94%, high latent anxiety 82%, broken motivation 82%, feeling of stigmatization 78%, timidity of social contact 74%, disturbed body image 72%, ambivalence 72% and high latent aggressiveness 66% (Einsiedel, E., & Clausner, A.

More about Pectus Excavatum Research Paper

Open Document