Between August 1984 and October 1988, 7 women and 16 men underwent chest-wall resection. The 23 patients ranged in age from 17 to 79 years. Resection was done for benign lesions in 9 patients, for recurrent chest-wall sarcoma in 4 and for carcinoma involving the chest wall in 10. The number of ribs resected ranged from none to six. Prosthetic material was required for reconstruction in eight patients. There were no operative deaths and no flail segments developed postoperatively. Three patients have since died of metastatic disease, one has died of unrelated causes but with no residual disease and the remainder were alive and well at follow-up intervals ranging from 11 to 60 months. Aggressive resection, including a wide margin of healthy tissue, provides the best chance for recurrence-free survival for patients with many types of chest-wall tumour. Resection can be performed with low morbidity and satisfactory cosmetic results.