Demographics of Anterior Chest Wall Deformity Patients: A Tertiary Children's Hospital Experience

Introduction: Anterior chest wall deformities consist of abnormal development of the chest, with the most common congenital deformities being pectus excavatum (PE) and pectus carinatum (PC). Surgical series are common, but less research is present assessing the demographics of all who present for initial evaluation. The purpose of this study is to describe the patient characteristics of those who present for ambulatory surgical evaluation.

Methods: Data were collected from initial patient visits to an established multispecialty chest wall deformities program at a large Children's Hospital from 2017 to 2021. Variables assessed included primary diagnosis, age, sex, race/ethnicity, and whether surgical correction was performed.

Results: A total of 1510 children were evaluated: 50.0% (n = 755) with PE, 43.3% (n = 653) with PC, 2.7% (n = 41) with mixed chest wall deformities, 0.7% (n = 10) with Poland syndrome, 1.1% (n = 17) with Currarino-Silverman syndrome, and 2.3% (n = 34) with other anterior chest wall deformities. Males and females presented at mean age of 12.8 (4.2) and 10.9 (5.5) years, respectively (P = 0.001). White children represented 61.1% of the overall population while Hispanic children represented 26.3%. White, non-Hispanic children represented 61.9% and 71.5% and Hispanic children represented 26.0% and 26.3% of the PE and PC populations, respectively.

Conclusions: Most patients seen in an urban chest wall deformities clinic were White, non-Hispanic; however, the proportion of other groups such as Hispanic and Asian is greater in this cohort than previously described. Further research is ongoing to ascertain the extent to which disease predisposition versus access to care play roles in this population.