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FRIDAY, JAN. 10 (HealthDayNews) -- Italian surgeons who reconstructed a young cancer patient's hip by using a combination of the patient's thighbone and a donor bone graft report the new joint is still doing well more than four years later.
Writing in a research letter in tomorrow's issue of The Lancet, Dr. Marco Manfrini from the Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute in Bologna and his colleagues describe the procedure that was done.
The girl was 4 years old when she came to their attention in mid-1997 with a diagnosis of Ewing's sarcoma, a bone tumor. The cancer extended from the upper part of her femur, or thighbone, which makes up the "ball" part of the hip's "ball and socket" anatomy, to the middle of her thighbone. Today, the girl has full hip mobility and can attend school, ride an exercise bike, swim and walk without canes at home. She also has no discrepancies in limb lengths.
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While surgeons have previously reconstructed other skeletal segments lost to cancer, the Italian authors note that "no limb-salvage techniques have been described for hip reconstruction in this age group."
Ewing's tumor, also called Ewing's sarcoma, most often occurs in children and adolescents between the ages of 10 and 20. Bone tumors, the growth of abnormal cells in the bones, can be cancerous or not; Ewing's is cancerous. It most often develops in the arms or legs but can occur in any bone. Symptoms include pain and swelling. Treatment typically involves a combination of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, with amputation or reconstruction also done. About 60 percent are cured.
Manfrini and his team first removed some of the girl's cancerous thighbone and then transplanted her calf bone, keeping the blood supply intact, to create a new thigh bone. This transplant was inserted into a large piece of donor thighbone that was cut and shaped to fit. The new construction was held in place with small screws and a long titanium plate.
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