[Chest wall surgery]

Abstract

Despite the numerous differences among the distinct diseases of the chest wall, the surgery of this area shows certain common features. Treatment has progressively changed in the last few years due to advances in diagnostic techniques, minimally invasive procedures and reconstruction materials, and especially due to the multidisciplinary management of many diseases. Nuss' minimally invasive correction of pectus excavatum has gained devotees, although open approaches are performed with increasingly small incisions, almost comparable to the lateral incisions in Nuss' technique. Surgeons supporting the open approach also cite the evident disadvantages of the need for a steel implant for 2 or 3 years and for a second intervention to remove this implant. En-bloc resections with reconstruction using materials, which are increasingly better and covered by myocutaneous grafts in collaboration with plastic surgery departments, constitute a major advance in the treatment of chest wall tumors. Trimodal therapy for Pancoast tumors, consisting of induction chemotherapy and radiotherapy and subsequent surgical treatment of the tumor, currently provides the best results in terms of resectability and survival.