ABSTRACT
Objective: To analyze the application and significance of three-dimensional (3D) printing in the surgical simulation and plan-ning for pelvic malignant tumors before the actual surgery, surgical resection, and postoperative resection effect analysis. Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed for 20 cases of primary pelvic malignant tumors in 11 male and 9 female patients with a mean age of 39.1 years (range, 14-60 years) who were admitted to Xinjiang University of Medical Science and Technology between January 2014 and January 2018. The tumors included osteosarcoma in 7 patients, chondrosarcoma in 12, and Ewing's sarcoma in one. Accord-ing to the Enneking pelvic classification, 10 cases involved the pelvicⅡarea; 6, the pelvicⅢarea; 6, the pelvicⅠandⅡareas; and 8, the pelvic I andⅣareas. According to whether or not a 3D-printed osteotomy guide plate was used, the cases were divided into a 3D-printed guide plate group and a conventional group, with 10 cases in each group. Operation time, blood loss volume, function score, and linear distance deviation were compared between the two groups. Results: The operation was completed successfully with com-plete excision in 20 patients. The operation time in the 3D-printed guide plate group (4.4～1.4 h) was not statistically significantly dif-ferent from that in the control group (4.5～1.4 h; P=0.83). No significant difference in intraoperative blood loss volume was found be-tween the 3D-printed guide plate (1,980～1,158 mL) and control (2,785～1,784 mL; P=0.16) groups. The postoperative Musculoskele-tal Tumor Society score (20.4～0.98) in the 3D-printed guide plate group showed no significant difference from that in the convention-al group (20.2～1.29; P=0.78). The mean linear difference between the 3D-printed guide plate group (3.8～1.9 cm) and the conven-tional group (8.7～1.0) was statistically significant (P=0.001). Conclusions: The 3D-printed group was not significantly different from the conventional group in terms of operation time, blood loss volume, and function score but had better surgical resection accuracy than the conventional group.