Symptoms of funnel chest manifest in different degrees of sternal depression, back arching, fever, cough, chest tightness and shortness of breath, weakness, etc. Some patients will also have difficulty in breathing, palpitation and shortness of breath, chest pain accompanied by hunchback, scoliosis and other symptoms. Most of the patients with funnel chest have no obvious symptoms in early childhood, and those with severe deformity will have the above symptoms.
Funnel chest occurs in males and is a common chest wall deformity, which mainly means that the sternum and the ribs attached to both sides of the sternum are sunken inward and backward, in the shape of a funnel. Some patients are more likely to have a family history of the condition.
Typical symptoms of funnel chest will appear different degrees of sternal depression, back arching, abdominal expansion, even fever, cough, chest pain, chest tightness and shortness of breath, body weakness, loss of appetite, etc. Some patients will have dyspnea, palpitation, shortness of breath, severe pain in the sternum accompanied by a hunchback, scoliosis and other symptoms. However, most patients have no obvious symptoms in early childhood.
For those with mild deformity, no special treatment is needed, and the deformity can be corrected by itself as the patient grows older, such as correcting the thorax through chest exercises. If the deformity is serious, surgical treatment is needed, such as sternum lifting surgery, sternum reversal surgery, minimally invasive funnel chest correction surgery. Generally, the earlier the treatment, the better the prognosis.
In daily life, we should avoid strenuous exercise, take reasonable diet and strengthen outdoor exercise to promote bone growth and development. If you have chest tightness and chest pain, dyspnea, sternal deformity, etc., you should go to the hospital in time.