Keywords:
Multicentre study, Observational, Retrospective, Transplantation, Surgery, CT, Thorax, Bones, Chest
Authors:
F. Nistri1, A. Dell'Amore2, G. Dolci3, P. Ferrigno2, R. Stramare2, E. Quaia4, F. Rea4, C. Giraudo4; 1Treviso/IT, 2Padua/IT, 3Bologna/IT, 4Padova/IT
DOI:
10.26044/ecr2020/C-07654
Results
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 729±745 days after the STCA, respectively.
No short- or long-term post-surgical complications were reported.
Quantitative and qualitative assessment
The mean HU values of the transplanted sternal bone significantly increased between the first and the last available post-surgical CT (118±35 HU vs 191±44 HU; p=0.004) (Fig. 3). The mean density values of the ROIs performed on the sternum were significantly lower than those extracted from D4 (156±36 HU) at CT1 (p=0.006) while no differences emerged at CT2. The HU values extracted from D4 did not differ between the two time points (p=1.000) (Fig. 4).
The qualitative score also significantly increased between the postsurgical controls (mean score 1.2±0.8 vs 2.1±0.8 at the first and last available CT, respectively; p=0.000) (Fig. 5).
Both quantitative and qualitative assessment showed high intra-rater reliability and high agreement (ICC>.890; k>.906).