A 20-year-old male college football player with traumatically induced neck pain was referred for a bone scan following an abnormal plain radiograph of the third cervical vertebral spinous process. Tc-99m MDP images revealed an incidental finding of extensively increased sternal and costochondral uptake. The patient had a surgical repair of pectus excavatum 10 years earlier but no recent anterior chest pain. The increased uptake in the sternum and the distal anterior ribs is presumed to be secondary to posttraumatic ossification. Although the exact surgical procedure in this patient is unknown, a common surgical correction of this deformity includes excision of the deformed costal cartilages, disarticulation of the xiphisternal joint, and a posterior transverse osteotomy of the sternum with insertion of a wedge of bone for support.
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