A case report of robotic-assisted resection of large fibrous benign tumor of second rib

BACKGROUND: Surgical resection is the most effective curative management of benign rib tumors and carries an excellent prognosis. Due to complex anatomy and narrow field, higher rib resection is technically demanding and requires extensive dissection. CASE PRESENTATION: We report a case of second rib tumor resection performed transthoracic under Da Vinci robot assistance. A 32-year-old male complained about increasing pain in the left anterior chest wall. After 3D reconstruction of CT, it showed a well-circumscribed fusiform lesion with a multi-component structure. Measured 17 × 6 × 4 cm and extended into the chest cavity to the depth below the pectoralis minor muscle. The patient underwent robotic-assisted trans-thoracic second rib resection. At four weeks of outpatient follow-up, the patient reported no pain and uncomplicated wound healing. CONCLUSION: This minimally invasive approach offers optimal visualization and tissue manipulation while dramatically decreasing the possibility of collateral damage, hence ensuring fast function recovery. To the best of our knowledge, these kinds of procedures are rarely reported in detail.