What about funnel chest? Early medical attention is the key!

The “front chest to back” is often used to describe a very hungry state, but if this situation really occurs in daily life, it is likely that the child has a disease called “funnel chest”. Recently, a child of similar size was admitted to the hospital, and as seen on his chest CT film, there was only about 8 mm between his front chest and his back. According to his mother, the child developed a sunken chest at the age of half a year, and was told that he was calcium deficient after a checkup at the local hospital, and was prescribed some cod liver oil and calcium tablets to take at home. The situation worsened after Qiang Qiang turned 3, but it didn’t seem to have much impact on sports and life, so the parents didn’t seek further treatment. This year, at the age of 7, Qiang Qiang was much thinner than his peers, his chest was sunken deeper and deeper, and he had frequent panic attacks and shortness of breath. The child’s sternum was only 8 mm away from the crest and was diagnosed as “congenital funnel chest”. Under normal circumstances, there are important human organs such as heart, large blood vessels, esophagus and trachea between the sternum and the crest. Due to the depression and extrusion of the sternum in the middle of the chest, but the heart and lungs of Qiangqiang have been squeezed to the left side of the body, if it continues to develop will be seriously deformed, not only affect the function of the patient’s heart and lungs, because of the deformed appearance of the chest, so that patients feel different from others, but also make patients have low self-esteem, affecting the social life of men and women, and in serious cases may even be life-threatening. The expert team used the rare “suspension minimally invasive technology” to successfully fix the orthopedic plate with a small incision of 2 cm, and finally completed the surgery successfully. Zhang Zhigong introduced, “funnel chest” is mostly due to congenital developmental abnormalities, the incidence is between 0.1%-0.3%. The cause of funnel chest is unknown, and it is also difficult to be detected during prenatal checkups. With the advent of technology, funnel chest does not necessarily require surgery and there are many minimally invasive and even non-invasive methods available! But in any case, it is important to seek medical attention as soon as possible. Parents should see a doctor as soon as they notice any abnormalities in the physical appearance of their child, or consult via the Internet, so as not to delay the lifelong importance of their little one.