Analysis of clinical outcomes in en bloc resection for spinal tumors / 中华骨科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To assess the clinical outcome of patients with spinal tumors who received en bloc resection in our center and to provide theoretical basis for developing novel surgical technique in en bloc resection for spinal tumor.Methods:We retrospectively reviewed the clinical and follow-up data of 113 patients who received en bloc resection for spinal tumors in Musculoskeletal Tumor Center, Peking University People's Hospital from Jan. 2007 to Dec. 2021. There were 68 males and 45 females with an average age of 38.7±16.7 (10-79) years. Primary malignant spinal tumors, primary aggressive spinal tumors and solitary metastatic spinal tumors were diagnosed in 55, 27 and 31 patients, respectively. The surgeries were planned according to the surgical classification for en bloc resection for spinal tumors proposed by Boriani et al, which classified the en bloc resection for spinal tumor into 7 types. The general condition (gender, age, histological diagnosis, location of the lesion, number of involved vertebrae, pre-operative neurological function), surgical procedure (type of surgery, stage of surgery, reconstruction method for anterior structure, duration of surgery, intra-operative haemorrhage, surgical margin), peri- and post-operative complication (intra- and peri-operative complication, post-operative neurological function), and survival [overall survival (OS), recurrence-free survival (RFS) and implant survival (IS)] of patients were retrospectively analyzed.Results:All surgeries accomplished uneventfully except one intra-operative death owing to the haemorrhagic shock caused by injury of major blood vessel. Mean duration of surgery and volume of intra-operative haemorrhage was 517.6±267.4 min and 3802.7±3039.4 ml, respectively. R0 resection was achieved in 48 patients. Three patients died in peri-operative period. Intra- and peri-operative complications were identified in 44 patients (38.9%). 109 patients were followed up with a mean time of 39.4±35.2 months. 27 patients died during follow-up period. The average post-operative overall survival (OS) was 115.4[95% CI (97.9, 133.0)]months and the 5-year OS rate was 64.1%[95% CI (52.3%, 75.9%)]. In patients with primary malignant spinal tumors, the OS of patients with R2 resection was significantly poorer than that of patients with R0/R1 resection ( P=0.024); in patients with metastatic tumors, no difference of OS was observed in patients with different surgical margins ( P=0.612). There were 29 recurrences, and the mean RFS was 105.8 [95% CI (87.5, 124.1)] months. In patients with primary malignant and aggressive spinal tumors, the RFS of patients underwent R2 resection was significantly lower than that of patients underwent R0/R1 resection ( P=0.008, P=0.027); in patients with metastatic spinal tumors, no significant difference of RFS was found in patients with different surgical margin (P=0.707). Conclusion:Although en bloc resection for spinal tumors indicates high morbidity, it significantly improves the OS of patients with primary malignant spinal tumors and the local control of primary malignant and aggressive spinal tumors.