Fig. 1

Shaping and preparation of patient-tailored silicone spacer. Starting from a single, 1-mm width and 10 × 10 cm silicone sheet (a), the first plate has been created and shaped directly from tumor features (b) with surgical blade. Subsequently, the optimal width for the final spacer has been chosen (usually around 5 mm) and then singles pre-modeled silicone sheets (c) are stacked up and fixed by 1-0 Prolene suture (d–f)