Closing Sternum Methods

Congenital cleft sternum.

Total or partial fissure in the middle of the sternum (cleft sternum or fissura sterni congenita) is a rare congenital anomaly. Absence of skeleton in the front part of the chest wall gives rise to a severely paradoxical movement of this part of the thorax (Figs 1 and 2). Moreover, the pulsations of the heart and large vessels are clearly visible because they are covered only by soft tissues. T...

Primary osteomyelitis of sternum.

Complete cleft sternum.

A case of complete cleft sternum is presented along with the nomenclature of sternal defects. It is recommended that the term ectopia cordis should be applied only to cases in which the heart and thoracic viscera are genuinely ectopic. Surgical correction of complete cleft sternum should be performed in the neonatal period whether the infant is symptomatic or not. Simple closure of the defect, ...

Sternum hypoplasia diagnosed during sternotomy

Background The sternum (breastbone) is a long, flattened bone, laying vertically and constituting the middle part of the anterior wall of the thorax. It is clinically important for us, because median sternotomy is the most common surgical approach used in cardiac surgery. It has three parts named from above to downward; manubrium, corpus and xiphoid. Its average length in the adult is about 17 ...

Morphometric analysis of the sternum.

Sternum has a great clinical significance, considering that median sternotomy is the most common surgical approach used in cardiac surgery. The aim of this study is to standardize the sternum according to size, shape and sex and to obtain ranges of the "standard sternum". The study was done on 55 male and 35 female sterna of the average age of 65. Complex morphometric analysis of breadth, lengt...