Sternal transplant using cadaveric allograft (STCA) is a rare surgical procedure performed to repair massive bone tissue loss, sternotomy complications, or neoplastic resection [1-3]. This technique has provided excellent surgical and clinical results for chest wall reconstruction also because the cryopreserved cadaveric bone tissue is associated with a lower risk of immunogenic graft complications and postsurgical infections [1-8]. Computed tomography (CT) is routinely applied for the post-surgical thoracic assessment,especially to exclude complications [9], but a standardized method to assess graft outcome was still missing. Aim...

Study design CT scans of all patients who underwent STCA in two tertiary centers (i.e., Thoracic Surgery of the Padova University Hospital and Thoracic Unit of the University Hospital of Bologna) between 2009 and 2017 were collected. The following criteria were also applied: i) availability of at least two CTs after the STCA (CT1 and CT2, respectively); ii) CT examinations without contrast injection; iii) slice thickness of 1-3 mm. In case of multiple post-surgical CT examinations, the first and the last available scans were selected....

Surgical outcome Seventeen STCA were performed in the selected period, only fourteen patients (11 females, 61±12.8 years at surgery) matched the inclusion criteria. Among these, six patients were affected by sternal chondrosarcoma(Fig. 1), three by sternal metastasis from mammary carcinoma, three by previous surgical dehiscence, one by neuroendocrine tumor and one by plasmacytoma. According to the different diseases which led to the transplant, a full thickness partial or complete sternectomy an-bloc, including costal cartilages, was performed (Fig. 2). CT1 and CT2 were performed 32±40.26 and...

According to our results, the hereby-proposed CT-based qualitative and quantitative methods demonstrated to be robust tools for evaluating the bone healing process in patients who underwent STCA. In particular, regarding the quantitative evaluation, we are in line with previous studies focused on other surgical procedures, which showed that bone repairing is characterized by a progressive increase of bone density at CT [11-14]. The modified version of the score proposed by Stacy and colleagues for bone repair after sternotomy turned out to be a reliable method...

F. Nistri; Treviso/IT - nothing to disclose R. Stramare; Padua/IT - nothing to disclose A. Dell'amore; Padua/IT - nothing to disclose G. Dolci; Bologna/IT - nothing to disclose P. Ferrigno; Padua/IT - nothing to disclose E. Quaia; Padua/IT - nothing to disclose F. Rea; Padua/IT - nothing to disclose C. Giraudo; Padua/IT - nothing to disclose

A. Dell’Amore, A. Campisi, A. Giunta, S. Congiu, G. Dolci, G. Murana, S. Martin Suarez, N. Daddi, Surgical options to treat massive sternal defect after failed Robicsek procedure, Journal of Thoracic Disease 10(6) (2018) E410-E415. A. Dell’Amore, N. Cassanelli, G. Dolci, F. Stella, An alternative technique for anterior chest wall reconstruction: the sternal allograft transplantation, Interactive CardioVascular and Thoracic Surgery 15 (2012) 944–947. F. Stella, A. Dell’Amore, G. Dolci,N. Cassanelli, G. Caroli, C. Zamagni, A. Bini, Allogenic sternal transplant after sternectomy for metastasis of ovarian...