[Conservative and operative treatment of the funnel chest].

For the last 30 years, interest in chest wall anomalies has been growing. On the one hand physicians and patients were seeking advice and help from specialists, whereas on the other hand the media devoted more time and space to this subject. The present contribution deals with the funnel chest (cobblers' chest). In infancy the funnel chest can be treated in a conservative way. The favourable age periods for surgical treatment are between 6 and 8 and after 12 years of age. We reached this conclusion on the basis of 171 follow-up examinations of patients during the period 1966-1982.