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Congenital absence of the sternum is a rare malformation of the chest wall which results from failure of the process of midline mesenchymal strip fusion during embryonic development.
Patients with complete sternal cleft are at increased risk of mediastinal trauma, hypothermia, increased insensible fluid losses, cyanosis and recurrent infections of the chest.
With increasing age, surgical correction becomes difficult due to a decrease in compliance of the chest wall necessitating early surgical correction in the neonatal period.