Implant and limb survival after resection of primary bone tumors of the lower extremities and reconstruction with mega-prostheses fifty patients followed for a mean of forteen years

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Purpose: Previous studies reported variable outcome and failure rates after mega-prosthetic reconstructions in the lower extremities. The purpose of this study was to make a long-term single-center evaluation of patients treated with limb-sparing surgery and reconstruction with mega-prostheses in the lower extremities. Methods: We identified 50 patients (osteosarcoma (n = 30), chondrosarcoma (n = 9), osteoclastoma (n = 6), Ewing sarcoma (n = 4), angiosarcoma (n = 1)), who underwent limb-sparing reconstruction of the lower extremities (proximal femur (n = 9), distal femur (n = 29), proximal tibia (n = 9), and the entire femur (n = 3)) between 1985 and 2005. Surviving patients not lost to follow-up were evaluated using the MSTS score. Causes of failure were classified according to the Henderson classification. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was used for evaluation of patient, prosthesis, and limb survival. Results: Twenty-eight patients were alive at follow-up. Fifty-four percent had revision surgery (n = 27). The ten year patient survival was 60% (95%CI 46–74%); the ten year implant survival was 24% (95%CI 9–41%), and the ten year limb survival rate was 83% (95%CI 65–96%). Type 1 failure occurred in 9%, type 2 in 16%, type 3 in 28%, type 4 in 18%, and type 5 in 3%. Mean MSTS score was 21 (range, 6–30), representing a median score of 71%. Conclusions: Our long-term results with mega-prostheses justify the use of limb-salvage surgery and prosthetic reconstruction. Our results are fully comparable with other findings, with regard to limb and prosthesis survival, but also with regard to functional outcome.

Original languageEnglish
JournalInternational Orthopaedics
Volume42
Issue number5
Pages (from-to)1175-1181
Number of pages7
ISSN0341-2695
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2018

    Research areas

  • Amputation, Bone tumors, Limb-salvage surgery, Mega-endoprostheses, MSTS, Tumour endoprosthesis infection

ID: 220872577