Treatment of malignant bone tumours by extracorporeally irradiated autograft-prosthetic composite arthroplasty

Abstract

Autogenous bone graft which has been either autoclaved or irradiated is commonly used in oriental countries as an alternative to allograft. We started to use the technique of extracorporeal irradiation of the resected specimen and reimplantation (ECIR) in 1991. There was, however, a high incidence of fracture of the irradiated bone and loss of articular cartilage. In an attempt to reduce these complications, we combined the irradiated autograft with a conventional arthroplasty. Between 1995 and 1998, 14 patients underwent limb salvage by this method. Seven had an osteosarcoma, two bony metastases, three a chondrosarcoma, one a malignant fibrous histiocytoma, and one a leiomyosarcoma. Ten tumours were located in the proximal femur, two in the proximal humerus, and two in the distal femur. One patient who had a solitary metastasis in the proximal part of the left femur died from lung metastases 13 months after operation. The remaining 13 patients were alive and without evidence of local recurrence or distant metastases at a mean follow-up of 43 months (28 to 72). Postoperative palsy of the sciatic nerve occurred in one patient, but no complications such as wound infection, fracture, or nonunion were seen. All host-irradiated bone junctions healed uneventfully within eight months. Using the Enneking functional evaluation system, the mean postoperative score for all 14 patients was 80% (57 to 93). The use of irradiated autograft prosthesis composites reduces the complications of ECIR and gives good functional results. It may be a good alternative in limb-salvage surgery, especially in countries where it is difficult to obtain allografts.

Usefulness of limb salvage surgery for bone and soft tissue sarcomas of the distal lower leg

“…In Araki's series, infection, non-union, and fracture occurred 15, 20, and 25%, respectively (Araki et al 1999). In Chen's series, there was only one local recurrence in 13 stage-IIB OS treated by ERIR graft at a mean follow-up of 42 months, but a high complication rate was observed (Chen et al 2002). In our study, one patient (17%) had infection and there were no local recurrences from the irradiated grafts at a mean follow-up period of 73 months.…”

Proximal Humerus Reconstructions for Tumors

“…The most commonly used reconstructive techniques after proximal humeral resection include osteoarticular allografts [6,7,12,13,24,25], allograft-or autograftprosthesis composites [3,5,15], and endoprosthetic reconstruction [1, 4, 6, 8, 17, 18, 20, 24-26, 28, 31]. Alternative techniques include allograft arthrodesis, Tikhoff-Linberg resection and modifications, claviculo pro humero, vascularized fibula transfers, and concomitant scapular replacement [21,22,25].…”

Conservative Treatment of Campanacci Grade III Proximal Humerus Giant Cell Tumors

“…When osteoarticular allografts were used for the proximal humerus reconstructions, mean MSTS scores were 21.0 to 22.2 [12,22,28], and 65% to 83% of patients had satisfactory function [1,19]. Chen et al [8] reported MSTS scores for wide resection of malignant bone tumors and reconstruction with an allograft-prosthetic composite. Only two patients in their study had tumors of the proximal humerus with mean MSTS scores of 24 and 27 [8].…”