Factors for Survival and Complications of Malignant Bone Tumor Patients with a Total Femoral Replacement / 대한정형외과학회잡지

ABSTRACT

Purpose@#Total femoral replacement (TFR) is an extreme form of limb salvage. Considering the rarity of this procedure, reports have focused on the complications and a proper indication is unclear. This study analyzed 36 patients with TFR who were asked the following 1) prognostic factors related to survival in patients who underwent TFR with a tumoral cause; 2) overall implant and limb survival; 3) complications, functional outcome, and limb status for patients surviving for more than 3 years. @*Materials and Methods@#According to the causes for TFR, 36 patients were categorized into three groups extensive primary tumoral involvement (group 1, 15 cases), tumoral contamination by an inadvertent procedure or local recurrence (group 2, 16 cases), and salvage of a failed reconstruction (group 3, 5 cases). The factors that may affect the survival of patients included age, sex, cause of TFR, and tumor volume change after chemotherapy. @*Results@#The overall five-year survival of the 36 patients was 31.5%±16.2%. The five-year survival of 31 patients with tumoral causes was 21.1%±15.6%. The five-year survival of 50.0%±31.0% in patients with a decreased tumor volume after chemotherapy was higher than that of increased tumor volume (p=0.02). The five-year survival of 12 cases with a wide margin was 41.7%±27.9%, whereas that of the marginal margin was 0.0%±0.0% (p=0.03). The ten-year overall implant survival of 36 patients was 85.9%±14.1%. The five-year revisionfree survival was 16.6%±18.2%. At the final follow-up, 12 maintained tumor prosthesis, three underwent amputation (rotationplasty, 2; above knee amputation, 1), and the remaining one had knee fusion. Among 16 patients with a follow-up of more than three years, 14 patients underwent surgical intervention and two patients had conservative management. Complications included infection in 10 cases, local recurrences in two cases, and one case each of hip dislocation, bushing fracture, and femoral artery occlusion. @*Conclusion@#Patients showing an increased tumor volume after chemotherapy and having an inadequate surgical margin showed a high chance of early death. In the long-term follow-up, TFR showed a high infection rate and the functional outcome was unsatisfactory. Nevertheless, this procedure is an inevitable option of limb preservation in selected patients.