Value of Porous Titanium Alloy Plates for Chest Wall Reconstruction after Resection of Chest Wall Tumors

Objective: To explore the value of porous titanium alloy plates for chest wall reconstruction after resection of chest wall tumors. Materials and Methods: A total of 8 patients with chest wall tumors admitted in our hospital from Jan. 2006 to Jan. 2009 were selected and underwent tumor resection, then chest wall repair and reconstruction with porous titanium alloy plates for massive chest wall defects. Results: All patients completed surgery successfully with tumor resection-induced chest wall defects being $6.5{\times}7cm{\sim}12{\times}15.5$ cm in size. Two weeks after chest wall reconstruction, only 1 patient had subcutaneous fluidify which healed itself after pressure bandaging following fluid drainage. Postoperative pathological reports showed 2 patients with costicartilage tumors, 1 with squamous cell carcinoma of lung, 1 with lung adeno-carcinoma, 1 with malignant lymphoma of chest wall, 2 with chest wall metastasis of breast cancers and 1 with chest wall neurofibrosarcoma. All patients had more than 2~5 years of follow-up, during which time 1 patient with breast cancer had surgical treatment due to local recurrence after 7 months and none had chest wall reconstruction associated complications. The mean survival time of patients with malignant tumors was ($37.3{\pm}5.67$) months. Conclusions: Porous titanium alloy plates are safe and effective in the chest wall reconstruction after resection of chest tumors.