UICC World Cancer Congress 2006

Objective: We herein report middle term clinical results of massive frozen autografts for pelvic reconstructions. Methods: Eight patients underwent resection of malignant pelvic tumors and reconstruction with massive frozen autografts. An average age of patients is 47.1 years. Results: The mean operative time was 595 minutes and an average follow up period is 22 months. Three patients were DOD, Four CDF and one NED. Two patients could walk without any support, five patients needed the support of a cane and one patient needed wheelchairs for transfer. There were no recurrences from the grafted bone. Bone fusion was detected 6.1 months after surgery. Neither bone absorption nor breakage of instruments was detected in any of the cases. None of the cases, for which bone cement containing antibiotics was used, had infections after the surgery. Discussion and conclusions: Although allografts or custom-made prostheses are widely used for reconstruction, it is sometimes difficult to obtain a 3-dimensionally adapted allograft because of the complicated features of the pelvis, or to prepare a mega prosthesis due to time or cost constraints. On the other hand, a frozen autograft is perfectly fitted to the original space and has a good potential for fusion. The cavity after the tumor removal of an autograft is a good space for the use of bone cement containing antibiotics since it can compensate for the loss of bone strength and is effective to prevent the postoperative infections.