Surgical management of post-transplant bronchial stenoses: a single-center experience.

PURPOSE: Bronchial stenoses are challenging complications after lung transplantation and are associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality. We report a series of patients who underwent bronchoplasty or sleeve resection for bronchial stenoses that did not resolve with endoscopic treatment after lung transplantation. METHODS: Between 1995 and 2020, 497 patients underwent lung transplantation at our Institution. 35 patients (7.0%) experienced bronchial stenoses with a median time from transplantation of 3 months. Endoscopic management was effective in 28 cases (5.6%) while 1 patient required re-transplantation. Six patients (1.2%) underwent bronchoplasty or sleeve resection. RESULTS: The procedures of the six patients who underwent bronchoplasty or sleeve resection were as follows: lower sleeve bilobectomy (n = 3), wedge bronchoplasty of the bronchus intermedius (n = 1), isolated sleeve resection of the bronchus intermedius (n = 1), and isolated sleeve resection of the bronchus intermedius (n = 1), associated with a middle lobectomy. All patients were discharged after a median time of 11 days. At a median of 12 months from surgery, two patients remain alive with a preserved pulmonary function. Four patients died after a median time of 56 months from bronchoplasty of causes that were not related to surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Bronchial reconstructions are challenging procedures that can be performed in highly specialized centers. Despite this, they can be considered a good strategy to obtain a definitive resolution of stenosis after lung transplantation.

ECLS for Life-Threatening Complications in Mesothelioma Surgery: Is It Worthwhile?

Extracorporeal life support (ECLS) is an effective method for bridging patients to recovery in cases of respiratory and/or cardiac failure that are potentially reversible and unresponsive to conventional management. Nevertheless, there have been only few reports about the use of ECLS in oncological patients with complications due to their neoplasm or its treatment. We report the use of veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in three cases of severe perioperative complications following surgery for mesothelioma after induction chemotherapy at our Institution.

Predictors of behaviour in solitary fibrous tumours of the pleura surgically resected: Analysis of 107 patients.

OBJECTIVES: Gold standard therapy for solitary fibrous tumour of the pleura is complete surgical resection. Aims of this retrospective study are to evaluate oncological and surgical outcomes and to verify the clinical reliability of prognostic scores presented in literature. METHODS: Study population: 107 patients surgically treated between 1972 and 2018. Male/female ratio: 1/2.45; median age at surgery: 60 years (range, 19-80); peduncle lesions 69.8%; visceral pleura origin 72.9%; benign histology 73.8%; median diameter 8 cm (range 1 to 35, 27 cases giant [≥15 cm]). RESULTS: After a median follow up of 7 years, 12 patients had recurrence. By multivariate analysis, malignant histology (P = .03; HR, 4.17; 95% CI, 1.15-15.06), origin from parietal pleura (P = .03; HR, 3.90; 95% CI, 1.08-14.09), England (P = .002; HR, 1.98; 95% CI, 1.28-3.07), Diebold (P = .008; HR, 1.96; 95% CI, 1.20-3.22) and Tapias (P = .003; HR, 1.75; 95% CI, 1.20-2.53) scores were found independent significant predictors of relapse. Giant tumours were associated with open surgery (P = .003), origin from parietal pleura (P = .011) and intraoperative bleeding (P > .001). Overall 10-year disease-free survival (DFS) rate was 81%. Predictors of worst DFS were parietal pleura origin (P = .002), malignant histology (P = .006) and all the prognostic scores. CONCLUSIONS: Malignant histology and origin from parietal pleura were significant predictors of tumour recurrence and worst DFS. The use of current scoring systems can help to predict clinical behaviour. Patients with higher risk of relapse can benefit from closer follow up, prolonged over 10 years.

Molecular Profiling of Tissue Samples with Chronic Rejection from Patients with Chronic Lung Allograft Dysfunction: A Pilot Study in Cystic Fibrosis Patients.

Chronic rejection (CR) is the main culprit for reduced survival and quality of life in patients undergoing lung transplantation (Ltx). High-throughput approaches have been used to unveil the molecular pathways of CR, mainly in the blood and/or in bronchoalveolar lavage. We hypothesized that a distinct molecular signature characterizes the biopsies of recipients with clinically confirmed histological signs of CR. Eighteen cystic fibrosis patients were included in the study and RNA sequencing was performed in 35 scheduled transbronchial biopsies (TBBs): 5 with acute cellular rejection, 9 with CR, and 13 without any sign of post-LTx complication at the time of biopsy; 8 donor lung samples were used as controls. Three networks with 33, 26, and 36 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were found in TBBs with CR. Among these, seven genes were common to the identified pathways and possibly linked to CR and five of them (LCN2, CCL11, CX3CL1, CXCL12, MUC4) were confirmed by real-time PCR. Immunohistochemistry was significant for LCN2 and MUC4. This study identified a typical gene expression pattern in TBBs with histological signs of CR and the LCN2 gene appeared to play a central role. Thus, it could be crucial in CR pathophysiology.

Sternal transplant using cadaveric allograft: quantitative and qualitative assessment of bone healing by computed tomography.

BACKGROUND: Sternal transplant using cadaveric allograft (STCA) is a complex and rarely performed surgical procedure usually applied for massive bone tissue loss, sternotomy complications, or neoplastic resections. Although radiological imaging and especially computed tomography (CT) is routinely applied for the post-surgical assessment, up to now, a standardized approach evaluating the outcome of STCAs is missing. Therefore, aim of this study was to qualitatively and quantitatively evaluate, by CT, bone healing after STCA. METHODS: The first and the last available postsurgical CT of patients who underwent STCA in two tertiary centers between 2009 and 2017 were collected. Standardized regions of interest were applied on the cancellous bone along the transplanted sternum, and, as reference, on the fourth thoracic vertebra, at both time points, collecting the density values. The areas nearby the fixation devices were assessed by a four-points qualitative score. To evaluate the mineralization, the analysis of the variance (ANOVA) with post-hoc Bonferroni correction was applied for the quantitative measurements while the Wilcoxon test was used for the qualitative score (P<0.05). To evaluate the intra-rater reliability of the qualitative and the quantitative analyses, the same rater repeated the measurements after two months and the Cohen's kappa (k) and the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) were computed. RESULTS: Fourteen patients (11 females, 61±12.8 years) were examined. The first control CTs were performed 32±40.26 days after the STCA and the last CT were acquired after 729±745 days. The quantitative and the qualitative score significantly increased between the two intervals (P<0.05, each). The density of the transplanted sternum was lower than that of the vertebral reference at the first CT (P=0.006) while no differences occurred at the last control (P=0.361). The assessments showed high intra-rater reliability and agreement (ICC ≥0.890, k≥0.906). CONCLUSIONS: The hereby-proposed qualitative and quantitative methods demonstrated to be good tools for assessing bone healing after STCA.

Indications and Results of Sternal Allograft Transplantation: Learning From a Worldwide Experience.

BACKGROUND: Reconstruction of the anterior chest wall defect after sternectomy is a challenge for cardiothoracic surgeons. In 2010, the Padua group published the first case of cadaveric sternum transplantation after sternectomy. This multicenter study reports the clinical indications and early and long-term results of sternal chondral allograft transplantation. METHODS: This is a retrospective multicenter study from 7 academic centers. We collected demographic data, surgical indications, technical details, and early postoperative results. The complications, long-term stability, and tolerance of the allografts were also analyzed. RESULTS: Between January 2008 and December 2019, 58 patients underwent sternectomy followed by reconstruction using cadaveric-cryopreserved sternochondral allografts. Thirty-two patients were male, median age 63.5 years (interquartile range, 50-72 years). Indications for sternectomy were secondary sternal tumors (n = 13), primary sternal tumors (n = 15), and nonneoplastic disease (n = 30). Thirty patients underwent total sternectomy, 16 lower-body sternectomy, and 12 upper-body manubrium resection. The 30-day mortality was 5%; overall morbidity was 31%. Six early reoperations were necessary because of bleeding (n = 1), titanium plate dislocation (n = 1), and resuture of the skin in the lower part of the incision (n = 4). Overall, 5-year survival was 74%. In all the survived patients, the reconstructions were stable and free from mechanical or infective complications. CONCLUSIONS: The main indications for sternal allograft implantation were complex poststernotomy dehiscence followed by primary or secondary tumor involvement of the sternum. The collected results demonstrate that sternochondral allograft transplantation is a safe and effective method in reconstructing the anterior chest wall after sternectomy. Further studies to demonstrate the integration of the bone grafts into the patients' sternal wall will be made.

Sternochondral replacement: use of cadaveric allograft for the reconstruction of anterior chest wall.

BACKGROUND: Sternum may be involved by different diseases such as trauma, infection after cardiac surgery, tumors (primary and secondary) or chest wall deformities. Surgical excision with a safety margin is the primary goal after sternal resection for tumors, prevention of respiratory impairment due to flail chest and deformity and protection of surrounding organs are other important aims. Various techniques and materials have been used for this operation. We describe the use of cadaveric sternal allograft to reconstruct the chest wall in fourteen patients. METHODS: Between October 2008 and February 2017, five males and nine females underwent surgical procedure because of primary sternal neoplasm, single-site metastatic disease, neuroendocrine thymic carcinoma and sternal dehiscence after cardiac surgery. RESULTS: Fourteen sternectomy were undertaken. A muscle flap of pectoralis major was prepared to cover the graft in 9 patients. Adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy were performed after surgery in three patients. No postoperative complications happened in 11 cases (84.6%). One (7.1%) patient died 9 days after surgery because of pulmonary embolism. Two patients (15.4%) had complications: one presented fever caused by systemic candidiasis and one had a muscle flap bleeding. Hospitalization median time was 11 days (range, 6-31 days). At follow up, 7 patients were alive in absence of disease, 1 patient is alive with recurrence, 6 patients died but nor infection neither rejection of the graft happened. No respiratory impairment or flail chest were registered in any patients. CONCLUSIONS: This technique for sternal replacement in our experience can be considered safe with long term results, providing optimal chest wall stability. The allograft resulted well-tolerated permitting an optimal graft integration in the host.

Sternal allograft transplantation for anterior chest wall reconstruction after sternectomy.

The reconstruction of the anterior chest wall after sternectomy for cancer or after mediastinitis is still a challenging procedure for the thoracic surgeon. Different surgical techniques and materials have been used for anterior chest wall reconstruction, but none of them is yet considered to be the gold standard.  In this video tutorial, we report on our experience of using a sternal allograft for reconstruction of the anterior chest wall. Sternal allografts offer the same advantages as bone autografts and obviously are perfectly shaped for sternal replacement. They are simple to trim and to fix to the chest wall and, unlike autografts, do not require the patient to undergo an additional incision and procedure for harvesting the bone.