Assessment of the 8th of May International Florence Workshop : “treatment of thoracic deformities with 3D custom-made implants”
The Workshop was jointly organized by the Florence Meyer Pediatric Hospital (Prof. Antonio Messineo, Dr. Flavio Facchini, Dr. Marco Ghionzoli) and Prof. Jean-Pierre Chavoin, former head of the plastic surgery department of Toulouse University Hospital and President of AnatomikModeling.
The objective of this workshop was to train surgeons about the filling technique of Pectus Excavatum deformities with a 3D custom made implant. It took place in 2 stages:
- 3 live streamed surgical operations,
- A conference held by Prof. Chavoin.
The first surgical case was a simple correction of funnel chest with a 3D custom-made implant. The other two operations were more advanced because they consisted of reviewing prior failure of Nuss procedures.
These interventions allowed the surgeons involved in the workshop to interact with the operating team of Meyer Hospital and Professor Chavoin, asking questions during the broadcast.
As a result they were able to learn the 3D implant technique and train on how to correct an unsuccessful Nuss technique.
Prof. Chavoin later presented his experience of nearly 1000 cases of custom-made implants targeting Pectus Excavatum and Poland Syndrome.
Beyond the surgical technique, a focus was made on the CAD design and manufacturing technology (computer-aided design) from a medical scanner, to offer each patient a unique implant, 100 % adapted to his anatomy.
The surgeons who were trained during this workshop and now for the most of them AnatomikModeling referral surgeon in their respective countries:
- Maria Victoria Romanini - Plastic Paediatric surgeon - Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genova, Italy
- Jose Ruiz - Thoracic surgeon - ISSSTE - Mexico
- Claudio Andreetti and Antonio Gagliardi - Thoracic surgeons - Ospedale Sant'Andrea, Roma, Italy
- Kamel màtar Sattuf - Pediatric surgery - Hospital Universitario Virgen de las Nieves, Granada, Spain
- Carlos Alvarez - Thoracic surgeon - Hospital Universitario Valdecilla, Santander, Spain
- Manuel Lopez – Paediatric surgeon – Hospital Vall d’Hebron, Barcelona, Spain
- Stefan Anzelewicz - Paediatric surgeon – GUMED, Gdansk, Poland
- Dalibor Murgas - Paediatric surgeon - University Hospital Martin, Martin, Slovakia
- Jose Ribas Milanez de Campos - Thoracic surgeon - Centro de Medecina Einstein, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Following the Workshop, the Meyer Hospital organized a 3-day course about the treatment of thoracic deformities in Lucca from May, 9th to 11th 2019.
Lucca Course 9-11 May 2019: "1rst International Chest Wall Course"
70 thoracic, paediatric and plastic surgeons from all over the world were able to participate in this course. The pathologies discussed were congenital deformities such as Pectus Excavatum, Pectus Carinatum and Syndrome of Poland, but also tumors and traumas of the thorax.
The objective of this course was to help surgeons to identify patients who need surgery, to discover the best practices for the treatment of chest deformities, and to improve their own practices.
Speakers from Italy, Brazil, Spain, Denmark and Switzerland, among other, were able to respond to these objectives by testifying to their own experience, showing many clinical cases they dealt with. The Nuss procedure was presented with its advantages but also its risks of complications. The open technique of Ravitch, the non-surgical technique of the vacuum bell or lipofilling were also discussed.
Professor Chavoin was also able to present during this course his experience of 638 cases of patients affected with sunken chests and 149 cases of patients with Poland syndrome treated with custom-made silicone implants. In particular, he showed the quality of the morphological results, associated with extremely low risks of complications. He also explained the interest of the custom-made technique to review the failures of other techniques, especially the Nuss and Ravitch ones, without risk for patients.
