J. B. Pitt1, M. DeTella1, S. Zeineddin1, M. Carter1, A. Perez1, O. Lieland1, F. Abdullah1, M. Reynolds1, S. Goldstein1 1Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Division Of Pediatric Surgery, Chicago, IL, USA
Introduction:
Chest wall deformities consist of abnormal development of the chest with the most common congenital deformities being pectus excavatum and carinatum. Minimal research has been completed assessing demographic influence on age at presentation and surgical intervention. The purpose of this study is to describe the demographics of a patient population at a large chest wall deformity clinic located in a tertiary-care children’s hospital.
Methods:
Data was collected from initial patient visits from 2017 – 2022 using combination of data extraction from the electronic medical record and chart review. Variables assessed included primary diagnosis, age at first visit, sex, race, ethnicity and whether surgical correction was performed. Descriptive statistics were calculated using Excel. Institutional Review Board approval was received for this project.
Results:
A total of 1517 pediatric patients were evaluated and 455 patients were identified to have either pectus excavatum, pectus carinatum, or mixed chest wall deformity: 52% with pectus excavatum, 45.0% with pectus carinatum, and 3.0% with mixed chest wall deformities. Average age at presentation for all conditions was 11.9, with males and females presenting at 12.9 and 10.6, respectively. White, non-Hispanic patients presented at 12.2 years old. Hispanic, Asian and Black patients presented at 11.4, 11.9 and 11.9. For pectus excavatum, carinatum and mixed, age at first visit was 12.2, 12.6, and 12.7 years old. Surgery was performed in 22% of patients with average age a time of surgery of 15.7 years old. White, non-Hispanic patients made up 66.5% of the surgical population, while the next most prevalent ethnicity group was Hispanic, representing 29.9% of cases. The majority population showed to be predominantly white, non-Hispanic. Of the pectus excavatum patients, 61.7% are white, non-Hispanic. For carinatum and mixed, 60.5% of patients were white, non-Hispanic and 56.8% patients for mixed chest wall deformities. The next most prevalent ethnicity group, Hispanic, for pectus excavatum, carinatum, and mixed is, respectively, 26.1%, 26.4% and 31.8%.
Conclusion:
A majority of patients seen in an urban chest wall deformities clinic were white, non-Hispanic; however, the proportion of other minorities such as Hispanic and Asian is greater in this cohort than previously described. Further research is ongoing to ascertain the extent to which disease predisposition versus access to care play roles in this demographic disparity.
