Relationship of Sternal Foramina to Vital Structures of the Chest: A Computed Tomographic Study

Table 1

Complete data of the 15 examined patients.

Patient	Age (years)	Structure directly adjacent to the foramen	Width of foramen (mm)	Thickness of subcutaneous fat (cm)	Distance from foramen to a vital structure	Distance from the skin to the pericardium (cm)
1	69	Lung	5	2.2	0	6
2	51	Lung	0.5	1.8	0	5.3
3	63	Lung	1	1	0	5.1
4	90	Mediastinal fat	3.8	2.1	4.7	7.4
5	55	Lung	2	1.1	0	3.7
6	58	Mediastinal Fat	2.8	0.4	1.7	3.1
7	83	Pericard/heart	4.3	1.7	1	3.9
8	69	Lung	2.7	0.8	0	4.5
9	88	Pericard/heart	5	1.9	0	2.9
10	85	Pericard/heart	1.4	1.2	0.5	3
11	72	Lung	3.4	1.5	0	9.1
12	57	Mediastinal fat	2.1	0.8	2.7	4.2
13	83	Mediastinal fat	5	1.3	2.8	5.2
14	70	Lung	1	2.1	0	5.5
15	49	Lung	10	1.9	0	5.6
Mean	69.5		3.3			4.96