Israeli Surgeons Rebuild a Chest Wall With a 3D-Printed PEKK Implant

A rare tumor forced surgeons to rebuild the anchor of the chest from scratch

Surgeons at Clalit-Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, Israel, have completed what they describe as the country's first full chest-wall reconstruction using a custom 3D-printed implant. The patient, a woman in her twenties named Hadas, was diagnosed with an exceptionally rare sarcoma that had eroded most of her sternum and the ribs attached to it. Removing the diseased bone left a gap that no standard surgical material could fill adequately, so the team turned to additive manufacturing.

Why traditional options would not work

The sternum is not just a flat plate. It anchors the ribs, protects the heart and lungs, and flexes with every breath. Reconstructing it with synthetic mesh, titanium plates, or bone cement would have produced a rigid structure that does not move naturally and might not integrate with surrounding tissue over time. Dr. Yury Peysakhovich, Head of Thoracic Surgery at Beilinson, described the sternum as "essentially the anchor of the entire chest." Any reconstruction that was not anatomically precise would compromise both breathing mechanics and organ protection.

The surgical team rejected conventional materials and commissioned a fully customized implant designed directly from Hadas's CT scan data. The part was 3D printed in PEKK, a high-performance polyether ketone ketone polymer, chosen because its strength and flexibility closely match those of natural bone. PEKK also allows surrounding tissue to grow into the implant, which improves long-term stability.

The surgery and recovery

The operation took roughly two hours. Surgeons removed the diseased sternum and portions of the ribs, then inserted the PEKK implant through a discreet incision designed to minimize visible scarring. The printed part was built to fit Hadas's anatomy with millimeter-level precision, connecting directly to the remaining ribs.

Hadas was discharged within days and is recovering at home. Dr. Peysakhovich noted that the combination of advanced 3D printing and close collaboration across multiple surgical specialties made the procedure possible in a way that was not feasible only a few years ago. The case is documented in detail by VoxelMatters, the Jerusalem Post, and i24NEWS.

What it means for custom implants

PEKK is already used in aerospace and medical applications where weight, strength, and biocompatibility matter. This procedure extends that track record into thoracic reconstruction, a field where off-the-shelf implants have never fit well because every patient's chest geometry is different. 3D printing removes the tooling and per-patient cost barriers that kept custom implants out of routine surgery.

If the long-term outcome holds up, this kind of approach could become the standard for sternum and rib replacement after tumor resections, trauma, or congenital defects. Israel's medical system has been an early adopter of 3D-printed implants in other areas. This case pushes that work into a more structurally demanding part of the body.