Surgery may help leg and hip tumors in children

A group of Italian orthopedic surgeons have found a new bone reconstruction technique that may help young children with bone cancer in the lower limbs.

According to a statement from the January 11th issue of the journal The Lancet, where the study is published, treating tumors in children’s leg and hip bones has been difficult because conventional methods of lower limb bone repair do not allow for growing bones. Children may need multiple surgeries, or doctors may decide to amputate the affected limb.

In the new study, Dr. Marco Manfrini and colleagues at the Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli in Bologna report on their treatment of a 4-year-old girl with a tumor in her hip and femur, or thigh bone.

After the girl underwent anti-cancer treatments including chemotherapy, Manfrini and colleagues started reconstructive surgery.

The team of surgeons reconstructed the girl’s hip with titanium screws and plates as well as bone grafts from the girl’s leg bones. A portion of the girl’s fibula, and the smaller of the two bones joining the knee and the ankle were used by the surgeons. They used it along with another bone graft to replace part of her femur.

Strengthening exercises commenced after four months and after eight months she was able to bear some weight on the leg while using protective devices.

Four years and five months after the surgery, “the patient attends school, rides an exercise bicycle, swims, and walks without canes at home,” the authors write.

The grafted bone has grown sufficiently so that her legs are the same length, and areas where bone grafts were taken have healed.

“This case suggests a new method of hip reconstruction in a small child,” write Manfrini and colleagues.

“If long-term follow-up substantiates this promising early result, such reconstruction might become a viable option to amputation in this age group,” the authors conclude.

(Source: ASCO & Reuters Health)