Functional outcome in sarcomas treated with limb-salvage surgery or amputation

Purpose. In all patients treated at the Centre for Bone and Soft Tissue Sarcomas of Aarhus the functional outcome is prospectively evaluated by use of the Enneking system for the functional evaluation after surgical treatment of tumours of the musculoskeletal system. This system has been accepted by the Musculoskeletal Tumour Society and the International Symposium on Limb Salvage.Patients/methods. In the present study the functional outcome after limb-salvage surgery (89 patients) and amputation (58 patients) was compared. In the limb-salvage group the treatment was surgery alone in 50% and surgery combined with either radiotherapy in 39% or chemotherapy in 11%. Inclusion criteria were: Deep seated extremity sarcomas, age >14 years, more than 1 year post-treatment follow-up time and alive at the end of the study. Median age was 49 years (range 14-88 years). Median tumour diameter was 8 cm (range 1-20 cm), median follow-up time was 4.8 years (range 1-11 years). Wilcoxon and (chi2)-tests were used for statistical analyses.Results. The two groups were comparable according to age, sex, size of tumour, type of tumour, location of tumour, as well as post-treatment follow-up time. The functional scores were significantly higher after limb-salvage surgery as compared to amputation, the median scores being 85 and 47, respectively (p<0.001). A similar difference was observed if the Enneking scores were subdivided into general health-related scores and extremity-related scores. No association was found between functional scores and the following factors by use of univariate analysis: size of tumour, radiation therapy, localization of tumour and surgical margin.Discussion. We conclude that this study indicates that limb-salvage surgery is associated with a better functional outcome than that observed after amputation. However, whether this also indicates a difference in quality of life needs further studies.