[Palliative orthopedic therapy in tumor-induced osteopathies]

Skeletal instabilities due to neoplastic diseases in the aged are most often of metastatic nature. Pathologic fractures are observed most frequently with breast-, lung- and prostatic primaries. Palliative orthopedic surgery by stabilisation of a pathologic fracture (osteosynthesis, endoprosthesis) or by decompression and spondylodesis of vertebral manifestations alleviate pain considerably. The mean survival time of patients mobilized after such surgery is approximately 9 months.