Purpose: To evaluate outcomes following trans-arterial embolization of hypervascular appendicular bony tumors in patients undergoing orthopedic resection by performing a systematic review including data from the authors' institution.
Materials and methods: From April 2008 to August 2018, 73 patients (59 males, mean age 58.1 years) with musculoskeletal tumors presented for embolization for preoperative devascularization prior to orthopedic surgery. A retrospective chart review was performed to identify demographic, procedural and surgical data. A systematic review of the Pubmed, Medline, and Web of Science databases was performed to identify studies in which pre-operative embolization was performed of appendicular MSK tumors, and with measurements of estimated blood loss. All the variables listed above were recorded. A patient level analysis was performed to determine average estimated blood loss.
Results: 58 patients (47 men, 11 women, range 21-84 years) were included in our institutional analysis. The median EBL was 500 mL (range 100-3000). There was no difference in EBL between RCC (719.6 ± 626.1) and non-RCC groups (855.6 ± 657.5); p = 0.44. The median intra-operative transfusion requirement was 1.0 unit (range 0-8 ± 2.06). From 1984 to 2015, 9 studies were identified that provided data for a total of 118 patients (46 males, 42 females, range 10-82 years). The mean and median post-surgical EBL across all patients was 976.9 ± 78.5 (SE) and 725 mL (range 10-7000), respectively. There were no complications related to non-target embolization.
Conclusion: Preoperative trans-arterial embolization of hypervascular MSK neoplasms appears to be safe and effective in minimizing peri- and post-operative bleeding while keeping transfusion requirements low.
Keywords: Bony tumors; Estimated blood loss (EBL); Preoperative embolization; Transfusion requirements.
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