Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of bipolar prosthetic replacement for proximal femoral tumors from the perspectives of patient survival, prosthesis survival, functional outcomes, and complication rates. Methods Between July 2001 and July 2010, 96 patients with proximal femoral tumors underwent wide resection and bipolar prosthetic replacement, including 83 cases of primary femoral tumors and 13 cases of soft tissue sarcomas involving the proximal femur. There were 50 male and 46 female patients with a mean age of 43.2 years (range, 15-69 years). Prosthetic replacement for proximal femoral tumors was used in 85 patients and deactivated bone-prosthetic complex was used in 11 patients. According to Enneking staging, the patients were divided into 3 groups: group A, 24 patients at stages IA, IB, and benign lesion; group B, 56 patients at stages IIA and IIB; and group C, 16 patients at stage III, myeloma, and lymphoma. The American Musculoskeletal Tumor Society 1993 version (MSTS93) functional score was used to evaluate the lower limb function. Results Primary healing of incision was obtained in 93 patients; 3 patients had poor healing, which was cured after debridement. Of the patients, 89 were followed up 6.5 years on average (range, 1-10 years). During follow-up, 28 patients died of tumor. The 5- and 10-year survival rates of patients were 100% in group A, and were 56.5% and 41.5% in group B respectively, and the 5-year survival rate was 18.4% in group C; there was significant difference among 3 groups (P lt; 0.01). The 5- and 10-year survival rates of prosthesis were 74.4% and 62.5%, which were significantly higher than those of patients in groups B and C (P lt; 0.01). Sixty-one patients were followed up 1-10 years (mean, 4.7 years) for functional evaluation. The mean MSTS93 score of the survival patients was 79% (range, 63%-95%) at last follow-up. Complications were observed in 15 patients (16.9%): hip dislocation in 2, delayed infection in 2, aseptic loosening in 8, severe acetabulum wear in 1, and hip pain in 2. Conclusion Bipolar proximal femoral prosthetic replacement for proximal femoral tumors can provide a satisfactory functional outcome, especially for tumors at stage II or III and myeloma and lymphorma patients. Revision is needed because of main late complications of aseptic loosening, hip pain, and acetabulum wear.
ObjectiveTo summarize the combination methods and optimization strategies of the harvest procedure of anterolateral thigh chimeric perforator myocutaneous flap. MethodsA clinical data of 359 cases of oral cancer admitted between June 2015 and December 2021 was retrospectively analyzed. There were 338 males and 21 females with an average age of 35.7 years (range, 28-59 years). There were 161 cases of tongue cancer, 132 cases of gingival cancer, and 66 cases of buccal and oral cancer. According to the Union International Center of Cancer (UICC) TNM staging, there were 137 cases of T4N0M0, 166 cases of T4N1M0, 43 cases of T3N1M0, 13 cases of T3N2M0. The disease duration was 1-12 months (mean, 6.3 months). The soft tissue defects in size of 5.0 cm×4.0 cm to 10.0 cm×7.5 cm remained after radical resection were repaired with the free anterolateral thigh chimeric perforator myocutaneous flaps. The process of harvesting the myocutaneous flap was mainly divided into 4 steps. Step 1: exposing and separating the perforator vessels, which mainly came from the oblique branch and the lateral branch of the descending branch. Step 2: isolating the main trunk of the perforator vessel pedicle and determining the origin of the vascular pedicle of muscle flap, which was came from oblique branch, lateral branch of the descending branch, or medial branch of the descending branch. Step 3: determining the source of muscle flap, including lateral thigh muscle and rectus femoris muscle. Step 4: determining the harvest form of muscle flap, which included muscle branch type, main trunk distal type, and main trunk lateral type. Results The 359 free anterolateral thigh chimeric perforator myocutaneous flaps were harvested. In all cases, the anterolateral femoral perforator vessels existed. The perforator vascular pedicle of the flap came from the oblique branch in 127 cases and the lateral branch of the descending branch in 232 cases. The vascular pedicle of muscle flap originated from the oblique branch in 94 cases, the lateral branch of the descending branch in 187 cases, and the medial branch of the descending branch in 78 cases. The muscle flaps harvested from the lateral thigh muscle in 308 cases and the rectus femoris muscle in 51 cases. The harvest forms of muscle flaps included 154 cases of muscle branch type, 78 cases of main trunk distal type, and 127 cases of main trunk lateral type. The size of skin flaps ranged from 6.0 cm×4.0 cm to 16.0 cm×8.0 cm, and the size of muscle flaps range from 5.0 cm×4.0 cm to 9.0 cm×6.0 cm. In 316 cases, the perforating artery anastomosed with the superior thyroid artery, and the accompanying vein anastomosed with the superior thyroid vein. In 43 cases, the perforating artery anastomosed with the facial artery, and the accompanying vein anastomosed with the facial vein. After operation, the hematoma occurred in 6 cases and vascular crisis in 4 cases. Among them, 7 cases were successfully saved after emergency exploration, 1 case had partial necrosis of skin flap, which was healed after conservative dressing change, and 2 cases had complete necrosis of skin flap, which was repaired by pectoralis major myocutaneous flap. All patients were followed up 10-56 months (mean, 22.5 months). The appearance of the flap was satisfactory, and the swallowing and language functions were restored satisfactorily. Only linear scar left in the donor site with no significant effect on thigh function. During follow-up, 23 patients had local tumor recurrence and 16 patients had cervical lymph node metastasis. The 3-year survival rate was 38.2% (137/359). Conclusion The flexible and clear classification of the key points in the harvest process of anterolateral thigh chimeric perforator myocutaneous flap can optimize the protocol to the greatest extent, increase the safety of the operation, and reduce the difficulty of the operation.