Importance of morphological findings in the progress and treatment of chest wall deformities with special reference to the value of computed tomography, echocardiography and stereophotogrammetry.

Patients with chest wall deformities have many particular anatomical, physiological, genetic, biomechanical and psychological characteristics. It is generally recognized that surgical correction of funnel chest and pigeon breast may be done for psychosocial reasons alone. Morphological and dynamic investigations are done to identify the function of the deformed chest wall and to permit objective assessment of the cosmetic and functional outcomes of the operation. There is no universally agreed standard for the diagnosis of funnel chest and pigeon breast. Non-invasive investigations, such as computed tomography (CT), echocardiography (ECG) and stereophotogrammetry (SP), improve the quality of the diagnostic assessment, including evaluation of its functional aspects, without directly influencing the decision to operate, which is still made mainly on subjective grounds. The value of these techniques in the diagnosis of chest wall deformities is assessed and the results of our personal experience are presented.