Prevalence of chest wall deformities in a large sample of Iranian children aged 7-14 years.

OBJECTIVE

Pectus excavatum (PE) and pectus carinatum (PC) are two common chest deformities. We investigated the prevalence of chest wall deformities including PE and PC in Iranian population.

METHODS

25587 children and adolescents aged 7-14 years consisting of 13586 (53.1%) males and 12001 (46.9%) females were studied using cluster-stratified sampling method. Screening was clinical and based on descriptive findings. Suspected subjects with chest wall deformity were referred to the expert surgeon to confirm the diagnosis.

FINDINGS: The prevalence of chest deformities in our population was 204 (1.03%). The mean age of subjects was 10.2±3.0 years. Of these subjects 124 (0.49%) [74 (54%) males and 50 (42%) females)] had PE and 80 (0.31%) [58 (72.5%) males and 22 (17.5%) females)] had PC.

CONCLUSION

The prevalence of PE seems to be very high in Iran. Special attention must be paid to diagnose and treat this problem in our population.