Adamantinoma of tibia in Ethiopia: the first bone transplant in Ethiopia

Adamantinoma of long bones is an extremely rare tumor with no report, to authors' knowledge from neither Ethiopia nor Africa. We are reporting a 25 year old female college student with one and half years history of right mid leg pain and swelling with radiologically and histologically proven adamantinoma of right tibia. At CURE Hospital, she had undergone complete excision of the tumor with histologically documented clean margins. The limb was salvaged by reconstructing with a fresh frozen tibial allograft obtained from the USA and an interlocking intramedullary nail (SIGN nail). Such insertion and incorporation of huge allograft using SIGN nail and saving a limb is the first surgery in Ethiopia. The gradual incorporation of the allograft at different months during follow-up is elucidated with clinical signs of healing.

At times, limb salvage surgery and technology should be offered to selected patients with a chosen type of bone tumor.