Hello,

My daughter had pectus excavatum (funnel chest) and sleep apnea. She had a tonsil/adenoidectomy on Monday. I have read several places where this surgery helps both the apnea and the sunken chest (in young children over a 2 year period the center of the chest rises up to it's normal position). Like sucking for air all night over the years pulled her chest wall in (sort of like sucking hard on a juice box until it crumples?) And opening the airway lets it return to it's normal position (over a long time).

Well, I have a burning interest in chest walls and apnea.

Do any of your children with apnea also have a dented chest wall? Any replies would be greatly appreciated.

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As to the surgery, it was a great success. Two nights before the surgery, I videotaped her sleeping. In only ten minutes I recorded several different 'scenes' including: 1. gasping, tilting head back 2. 3 apneas: blows out, breathes 3. apnea sucking--no air, gasping 4. labored breathing 5. apnea, gasping, chest sinks in 6. chest goes in ribs flair, no air goes in 7. repeated apneas, I shake her twice 8. labored breathing, chest sinks in 9. sucking sounds.  SCARY.

After the surgery, I also taped her: regular even breathing. A little snurgly because of swollen throat and gunk in there. Five days later, she's so quiet that I check to make sure she's breathing, and she is! Hooray! We used to hear her breathing no matter where we were in the house, loud and scary.

It was a 20 minute surgery and 3 day recovery. She's still a little draggy, and not eating too much, but almost back to normal.

But like I say, I am very, very interested in understanding the pectus excavatum (PE) now. So, please, how common is it in children with sleep apnea? Also I noticed the moderator casually mentioned that apnea is associated with PE, but on the pectusinfo.com message board they took it as controversial and suspicious. I would love to have more information on this. It makes a lot of sense to me, especially after watching my sleeping child's chest sink in. After the surgery, it rises like a normal person's (although the basic dent remains).


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Northern_grl

Hi, my daughter has the same problem, the sleep apnea with the sunken chest. She had adenoidectomy last august and the problem persisted, so now she is going for the tonsilectomy. But I'm very concerned about the chest, and I've been looking for information about it but I can't find anything.
Please let me know if you find more information about it.

Thanks,

HI,
I found your topic really interesting and very relevant to my 3 year old!!!
My son has a sunken chest that his resp consultants have always kept an eye on. He has obstructive sleep apnea along with a few other problems.  He had his T&As removed when he was 1 1/2 and over the next year his chest actually corrected quite a lot but now it is noticably deeper (his consultant actually commented on this yesterday-just been in hospital with paraflu) but it turns out that his T&As have grown back and are being removed again next month.

I could go on for ages about him - but I hear him coughing again so I better go!!

I recently did a web search on pectus and adenoid hypertrophy.  My 2-year-old daughter has large adenoids that cause mild OAS and has pectus excavatum.  I too watched her sucking for air and thought there must surely be a connection.

There are several publications in medical journals reporting a link between patients with upper airway obstruction and pectus.  I have only read the abstracts of the articles, so I don't have much detail on the age of the patients though they were clearly pediatric patients. A couple of the abstracts did indicate that removing T&A relieved the pectus.  Again, didn't read the full article, so I'm not sure of the timeframe for results.
 
Here is a link to one article on point. http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/135/6/550

Would love to hear if you note any improvement in the pectus over time.  We are on the fence about having her adenoids removed.

Hi,

I have been reading up about T&A's. Did anyone have the technique called "PITA?"

My daughter recently saw an ENT and he recommended a T&A based on her large adenoids (3+?), fatigue, snoring and bed-wetting.
I've read PITA is supposed to cut down the recuperation time, but it sounds sort of new. Was just curious how widespread it it and
if only certain docs do it, etc.

I have to have a second consult with the ENT to go into more detail, but was just curious about opinions.

He was not recommending a PSG because of her age, although the symptoms seem consistent with OSA.

Thanks,
Jenny