Left Robotic Assisted Fourth Rib Resection for Metastasis in a Patient with Breast Implants

The patient is a forty-nine-year-old woman who had previously undergone a bilateral mastectomy to treat breast cancer. Her follow-up CT scan showed a single left fourth rib nodule suggestive of metastasis. This was a challenging situation because the patient had breast implants and the rib lesion was immediately under the left implant. External rib resection would have required lifting the implant via a large incision in a joint procedure with a breast surgeon.

The surgical team decided to perform an internal rib resection through the pleural space using a robotic assisted approach with the Davinci XI platform.