Pre-treatment optimisation with pulmonary rehabilitation of elderly lung cancer patients with frailty for surgery.

Objective: Frailty develops as a result of age-related decline in many physiological systems and is associated with increased vulnerability to adverse outcomes following thoracic surgery. We prospectively tested our hypothesis that pre-operative pulmonary rehabilitation (Prehab) improves frailty, as suggested by a frailty index > 3 (FI > 3) and fitness, and thereby reduces the risk of post-surgical complications and death in vulnerable elderly lung cancer patients.

Methods: 221 surgical patients, 80 with FI > 3 vs.

3D Printing Technology for Chest Wall Reconstruction With a Sternum-Ribs-Cartilage Titanium Implant: From Ideation to Creation.

Objective: We describe the use of 3-dimensional (3D) printing technology to plan and reconstruct the sternum, adjoining cartilages, and ribs with a custom-made, anatomically designed, 3D-printed titanium implant for an isolated sternal metastasis complicated with a pathological fracture.

Methods: We imported submillimeter slice computed tomography scan data into Mimics Medical 20.0 software and by manual bone threshold segmentation created a 3D virtual model of the patient's chest wall and tumor.

Chest Wall Reconstruction With 3D Printing: Anatomical and Functional Considerations.

Large chest wall defects, as a result of wide local excision of chest wall pathology, require skeletal and soft-tissue reconstruction to restore the anatomical shape, structure, and respiratory function of the thorax. Reconstruction is challenging and requires the surgical reconstructive team to understand the anatomic and physiologic morbidity related to the defect and the choice of reconstructive techniques available to restore form and function. Rapidly emerging 3-dimensional (3D) printing technology allows the reconstructive surgical team to customize the therapeutic process of skeletal reconstruction by accurately mimicking the shape and structure of the chest wall being replaced.

An adult with episodic retrosternal chest pain: an unusual presentation of congenital pulmonary airway malformation - case report.

Background: Congenital pulmonary airway malformation (CPAM) with partial anomalous pulmonary venous connection presenting as episodic retrosternal chest pain on exertion in an adult has not been described.

Case Presentation: A 21-year-old female, non-smoker, presented with a 4-year history of sharp, episodic, retrosternal chest pains brought on with exercise. A contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) scan showed a grossly overinflated left lower lobe with partial anomalous pulmonary venous drainage into the left hemi-azygos vein.