Good health in Naples: at Pascale, a 3-year-old man had his humerus reconstructed in 75D, avoiding amputation. A 75-year-old man had his entire humeral segment removed and subsequently reconstructed in 3D.
The operation was performed, in the midst of the Covid emergency, at the 'Pascale' Cancer Institute in Naples. The man, who had also been suffering from myeloma for about six years, was missing a piece of bone of about 20 centimeters from his right arm, and the external contractor he had been wearing for a year, following complications from a neoplastic lesion, had caused an infection and had destined him to have the limb amputated.
Arriving at the Pascale in the midst of the Covid emergency, the team of Flavio Fazioli, director of the Complex Structure of Oncology Orthopedics, reconstructed the segment of the humerus and the elbow joint that the tumor had seriously compromised. With the help of the most advanced technology, Fazioli, with the assistance of surgeons Michele Gallo and Antonio Catapano, reconstructed the entire humeral segment in 3D plastic material in order to plan the type of surgery to be performed. The custom-made prosthesis made it possible to reproduce the patient's anatomy almost in a mirror-like manner to the original. Thanks to the 3D reconstruction of the humerus, the man has all the joint functions.
"The difficult pandemic moment - explains Fazioli - has made us discover even more the importance of the oncology network and the possibility of obtaining exchanges of clinical and instrumental data to allow us to intervene in the most appropriate way on diagnostic and therapeutic choices in difficult patients such as those affected by neoplasia. Through the network, with the exchange of graphs and contacts with bioengineers - he adds - the construction of the prosthetic implant was made possible.
The network today has become an indispensable element to be able to have those interconnections, that exchange of opinions at the basis of a rational production of a sophisticated prosthetic segment as only the elbow can be”. The patient had come for an initial visit to the Pascale in March and was operated on in mid-April. A month and a half after the reconstruction surgery, he regained the functions of the limb. “3D technology – says the general manager, Attilio Bianchi – is forcefully entering our surgeries, among other things without age limits. This intervention confirms that the Pascale has never stopped since the beginning of the pandemic”.
Article published on 1 July 2020 - 14:22
