Outcome of Endoprosthesis used in Limb Salvage Surgery in a Malaysian Orthopaedic Oncology Centre.

INTRODUCTION: To describe the duration of survival among bone tumour patients with endoprosthesis reconstruction and to determine frequency of implant failure, revision of surgery, and amputation after endoprosthesis reconstruction.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective cross-sectional review of all patients with either primary bone tumour or secondary bone metastases treated with en bloc resection and endoprosthesis reconstruction from January 2008 to December 2020.

RESULTS: A total of 35 failures were recorded among the 27 (48.2%) patients with endoprostheses. Some of the patients suffered from one to three types of modes of failure on different timelines during the course of the disease. Up to eight patients suffered from more than one type of failure throughout the course of the disease. Out of all modes of failure, local recurrence (type 5 failure) was the most common, accounting for 25.0% of all failure cases. Four patients (7.1%) eventually underwent amputation, which were either due to infection (2 patients) or disease progression causing local recurrence (2 patients).

CONCLUSION: The overall result of endoprosthesis reconstruction performed in our centre was compatible with other centres around the world. Moreover, limb salvage surgery should be performed carefully in a selected patient group to maximise the benefits of surgery.