[Surgery provides symptomatic relief in skeletal metastases].
The skeleton is the third most common site of metastasis, after the lungs and the liver. Although metastasis to bone is associated with considerable morbidity, it is seldom the direct cause of death. Orthopaedic treatment of imminent or existing pathological fractures has been associated with a dismal outcome until recently, when the treatment principles of trauma surgery and arthroplasty began to be applied in cases of skeletal metastasis. The article consists in a report of 141 patients with symptoms of skeletal metastasis to the pelvis or extremities, where the indication for surgery was pathological fracture in 85 per cent of cases, the femur being the commonest site, followed by the humerus. A third of the patients had breast cancer. Median survival was six months in the series as a whole. At follow-up after one week, four months, and one year, outcome was rated as good or very good by 98, 99 and 100 per cent of the patients, respectively.
Nilsson
J
J
Universitetssjukhuset, Lund.
Gustafson
P
P
D000368:Aged; D019644:Arthroplasty, Replacement, Hip; D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000556:secondary* / Q000601:surgery; D001863:Bone Screws; D005260:Female; D005593:Fracture Fixation, Internal; D005598:Fractures, Spontaneous / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery*; D006620:Hip Fractures / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000379:methods*; D011379:Prognosis; D011859:Radiography