Pigeon Breast. This deformity is a sharply projecting breastbone resembling the protruding breast of a chicken. It is usually present since childhood, because of rickets or malnutrition, and is of little importance in adult years.
Funnel Chest. A common deformity which is the opposite of pigeon breast. The chest wall has a pushed-in appearance due to the breast bone being pulled back against the spine by muscles and ligaments. Funnel chest may interfere with proper heart and lung action in childhood, but in later years seems to cause very little difficulty.
Fig. 38. Emphysema may produce barrel-chest deformity. The chest must be constantly overexpanded to compensate for a thinned-out and less effective lung.
Emphysema (Barrel Chest). This enlarged chest is actually a constantly over-expanded chest. The disease consists of thinned out lung tissue, with the chest over expanding in an attempt to better use the remaining lung. This is a debilitating disease confined to later age groups. (See Lung Disease).
Lateral Curvature of the Spine (Scoliosis). Curvature of the spine is very common in later years and is possibly the result of childhood rickets, mild poliomyelitis, or foot and leg difficulties.
Work habits also can produce a mild degree of curvature of the spine, but usually lateral curvatures are not even suspected until the deformity is accidentally found in an examination. Seldom do they cause any difficulty. (See Deformities of the Spine.)