An Unusual Case of Palpitations: Pectus Excavatum

An unusual case of delayed rupture of the spleen associated with pectus excavatum.

CASEREPORT A 34 year old woman presented as a surgical emergency with left upper quadrant pain of sudden onset which had awoken her from sleep. The pain radiated to her left shoulder tip. No other symptoms were noted. There was no history of trauma nor medical history of note. Interestingly she remarked that she had had a similar, but self-limiting episode of pain some two months previously aft...

Pectus excavatum

Pectus excavatum occurs in approximately 1 in 400 live births. The chest defect becomes progressively worse with growth and in the teenage years can become disabling. Although considered cosmetic, and it is most certainly cosmetic, there are also well documented physiological changes such as decreased effort tolerance and cardiac arrhythmias. The young patients become used to the che t disabili...

Pectus excavatum

In pectus excavatum, a developmental chest-wall deformity that affects approximately one in 400 births, the sternum is depressed inward and the ribs protrude anteriorly. This deformity can compromise pulmonary and/or cardiac function. It can also produce a characteristic radiographic appearance on frontal radiographs, which may be mistaken for right-middle-lobe opacification from pneumonia or a...

Pectus excavatum.

Prenatal diagnosis of pectus excavatum

Pectus excavatum (PE) is the depression of the lower part of manubrium sterni and xiphoid process. The main problem of PE depends on the cardiopulmonary morbidity caused by the narrowing of the thoracic space. To date, prenatal diagnosis of this deformity has been reported only once and was associated with Down syndrome. We present another case which we diagnosed as PE during a second-trimester...