Management of bone defects after resection of mid-segment bone tumors

  The epiphysis is a common site for primary bone tumors, but primary bone tumors of the long bone stem and epiphysis are not uncommon. For this part of patients, under the condition that the principle of tumor resection is not violated, the limb function of patients can be significantly improved if the adjacent joint of the tumor site is preserved. Large bone defects caused by resection of tumors in the middle segment of long bones are usually treated postoperatively by means of segmental prosthesis of the middle segment, inactivation of allograft bone and autologous tumor bone, fibula graft, bone handling, and induced membrane technique. Because mid-segment segmental prosthesis can restore the function of the limb early after surgery, but problems such as loosening may occur in the middle and long term, it is mostly used for patients with metastatic cancer, myeloma, and other relatively short life expectancy who need to restore function early after surgery.  Biotype reconstruction can better preserve the patient’s mid- to long-term limb function and has a low rate of long-term complications, so it is widely adopted in clinical practice for the treatment of primary malignant bone tumors. Bone induction membrane is a new technique that has emerged in recent years for the treatment of large bone defects, and the procedure is performed in two stages, with tumor removal and fixation in one stage and bone cement filling the defect site at the same time. 6-8 weeks after excision of the periosteum on the surface of the bone cement, the bone cement is removed and autologous cancellous bone is implanted in the periosteum cavity. The periosteum contains a variety of osteoinductive factors and growth factors that promote bone healing. This method is mainly used in pediatric and adolescent patients.  Allogeneic bone grafting for the treatment of mid-segment bone defects is more commonly documented, but requires appropriate bone preservation conditions. Allogeneic bone grafts have the potential for rejection and longer healing times, thus increasing the problem of postoperative reoperation and infection due to mechanical factors.  Autologous tumor bone inactivation replantation is more suitable for tumor inactivation replantation because it does not have rejection reactions, can preserve the shape of bony structures, matches the defect formed after tumor resection, reduces the cost of surgical treatment, and other advantages, while preserving the protein activity that induces bone growth. Asian people have a tradition of valuing autologous bone, therefore tumor inactivation reimplantation is widely used in Asian countries such as China, Japan and Korea. There are various methods of tumor bone inactivation, including high-dose radiation irradiation, high-temperature boiling, pasteurization, hypertonic saline constant temperature water bath and liquid nitrogen freezing, and each method has its own advantages and disadvantages. Studies have shown that all of these methods can effectively kill tumor cells, but the pasteurization method has the least effect on the mechanical characteristics of bone, followed by high-dose radiation irradiation, and the high-temperature boiling method has the greatest effect on the mechanical characteristics of bone. Liquid nitrogen cryotherapy was first used to treat metastatic cancer and is now widely used to treat the residual cavity of invasive primary tumors. However, treatment of large autologous bone segments using liquid nitrogen freezing can lead to rupture of the bone segment during sudden temperature rise and fall, resulting in a decrease in the mechanical strength of the bone.  Inactivation and reimplantation of tumor bone after treatment has been used in our center for a long time, and we use the method of placing the tumor bone to be inactivated in 20% hypertonic saline in a constant temperature water bath at 62° for 30 minutes. The results of previous studies have confirmed that the 62° water bath for 30 minutes can effectively kill tumor cells, while the hypertonic saline can effectively protect the osteogenic activity of proteins in the inactivated bone. The results of previous experiments and long-term clinical studies at our center have demonstrated that this method is an effective means of repairing tumors in long bones after mid-segment resection because of its thorough inactivation of tumor cells and no recurrence of inactivated bone-related tumors in patients previously inactivated using this method, while preserving bone strength and osteogenesis-inducing ability of bone.