Treatment of giant cell tumor of long bone

From 1981 to 1991, sixty-eight patients with giant cell tumors of their long bones were treated and followed-up at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital. Thirty-three males and thirty-five females between the ages of 14 and 76 (average, 32 years) were followed for an average duration of 3.5 years (range, 2.5 years to 7.3 years). Forty-five primary lesions and 23 cases of recurrent lesions were diagnosed. Seventeen patients were classified as grade II while 51, as grade III. Surgical procedures included intralesional curettage and wide resection. The local recurrent rate following surgery was 13% (9/68). The overall outcome was 85% (58/68) good or excellent results. Complications included one superficial infection, 9 local recurrences and 3 fractures of fixation devices. In addition, one patient with a lung metastasis was noted. In the primary lesion group, there were 9 grade II and 10 grade III lesions treated by curettage and grafting. Of these 4 grade II and 5 grade III patients had local recurrences. The recurrent rate was 47% (9/19) following intralesional curettage with cancellous bone graft (8/16) or bone cement (1/3). The average period before local recurrence was 10.4 months. Seven of the 9 recurrent patients received radical resections and allograft reconstruction with good results at short-term follow-up. The other two patients were lost in follow-up. The cases in the curettage group had shown low recurrent rate (1/10) after 1989 and high recurrent rate (8/9) before 1989 (p < 0.001). The most important factor for local recurrence appeared to be inadequate curettage with similar recurrence rates regardless of the type of bone graft used. A careful approach to the surgical margin including use of a dental burr and local adjuvant treatment with phenol, the rate of local recurrence may be decreased. There were no recurrences in the wide resection group. Although radical resection yield a best chance for cure, the sacrifice of the joint with subsequent arthroplasty resulted a compromise of the joint function.