J.Jpn. Surg. Soc.. 79(9): 1215-1216, 1978

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Report on the annual meeting

LONG TERM RESULTS OF STERNAL-TURNOVER FOR FUNNEL CHEST DEFORMITY

At the Sapporo Medical College Hospital and Tokyo Women's Medical College Heart Institute of Japan, since a new operative method for correction of funnel chest "Sterno-Turnover" was advocated and introduced clinically by the author in 1959, it was applied in 365 cases of severe funnel chest deformities. During the same period only 70 cases underwent our costal plasty who had localized unilateral deep pectus excavatum. Brown's ternal elevation technic was employed in our earliest 24 cases and was discarded.
For, objective decumentation of the deformity, before and after operation we have previously proposed Funnel Index. Currently, we have utilized a new three demensional measurment; the Moire Topography. It is the most useful objective method ever available in clinical practice.
Long term follow up studies including tomographic finding, cincigraphic demonstration of the turned over sternum, and enquete inquiries from 150 patients who had undergone the Sterno-Turnover more than ten years ago showed excellent clinical outcome in over 90% of the patients.
Retrospectively, among the surgically treated cases there were two major types of the deformities observed; symmetical and asymmerical or uniliteral deep excavation. The symmetrical type is more common in children under the age of 11 years. After the age of 12 asymmetrical deformities increase in number, and are associated with scoliosis. It is authors opinion, therefore, surgical correction represented by the sternal turnover method should be performed before scoliosis develops in ideally preschooling age.

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