Question

Can a 14-year-old with mild pigeon chest improve the deformity of their chest wall by doing push-ups?

Answer

Treatment for pigeon chest typically requires surgical methods. Here are several common treatment options:

  1. The subcutaneous pedicle thoracic osteotomy, which is similar to the treatment for funnel chest.
  2. The nonpedicle thoracic osteotomy, also similar to the treatment for funnel chest, but because the ribs and costal cartilages of pigeon chest are longer, especially the third and fourth ribs and costal cartilages are the longest, while the fifth rib is shorter, special attention must be paid during surgery.
  3. The costal cartilage reduction procedure, which requires a midline or transverse incision to separate the two sides of the pectoralis major muscle, expose the deformed chest muscles and both sides of the costal cartilages, and divide the rectus abdominis muscle at its attachment point to the body, turn it downwards, incise the periosteum of the ribs, remove the excess length of the deformed costal cartilages, and suture the periosteum in a longitudinal direction. If the chest muscle is severely deformed, wedge osteotomy may also be performed to flatten the sternum, and steel wires are used to fix it, pulling together and suturing the pectoralis major muscle, and suturing the rectus abdominis muscle to the front of the sternum. The surgical results are quite satisfactory. When correcting the pigeon chest deformity through surgery, it is important to note whether the sternum will compress the heart after surgery. Therefore, detailed study of chest X-rays and CT scans is required before surgery. If there is no lung tissue between the sternum and the heart, there may be a risk of sternum compression on the heart postoperatively.