[Bone metastases as a traumatologic problem].

Abstract

The authors have attempted to cast some light on a problem that has confronted the surgeon for some 200 years: should a patient with terminal cancer, bone metastases and pathological fractures be treated surgically? In recent years the number of patient with pathological fractures has paralelled the increase in incidences of malignancies. Such pathological fractures are being noted at ever younger age. This paper concerns the author's five year experience with 53 patients operated on for pathological fractures at the Trauma Clinic in Ljubljana. The type of therapy chosen was determined jointly by the surgeon and oncologist strictly on an individual basis. The survival time of patients following surgery for pathological fractures was relatively long (especially with breast cancer patients /21 months postoperatively). This disprooves the thought that pathological fractures signify the beginning of the terminal phase of patients with malignancies. The authors note that the fracture to be operated on must be fixed and stable and the patients general condition of course must be permitting.