Abstract
Study Design: Descriptive case series.
Objective: To report on the outcome of 4 patients treated with Total En bloc Spondylectomy (TES) for solitary intra-osseous metastasis in the thoracolumbar spine secondary to hypernephroma.
Summary of background data: Patients with solitary spinal metastases from renal cell carcinoma (RCC) have better prognosis and show longer survival rates as compared to other spinal metastatic disease. Adjuvant control by chemotherapy and hormonal therapy has been proven ineffective to treat this relatively radioresistant tumour, which can often present with both back pain and neurological deficit.
Methods: Four patients with solitary vertebral metastasis secondary to RCC underwent TES for radical resection of the spinal pathology. The procedure involves en bloc laminectomy and corpectomy with posterior instrumented fusion and anterior instrumentation with cage reconstruction following the spondylectomy. All patients were fully staged pre-operatively and assessed according to the Tokuhashi scoring system to determine predictive life expectancy. 3 of the 4 had pre-operative embolization and all had radical resection of the primary tumour.
Results: All patients reported significant pain relief and demonstrated neurological improvement. One patient died at 11 months post-op due to a recurrence of the primary in the nephrectomy bed. 3 were alive and well at 18, 26 and 39 months post-op with no radiological evidence of tumour recurrence. There were no major surgical complications.
Conclusions: Careful patient selection is required to justify this procedure. The indication is best limited to solitary intra-osseous lesions where complete resection of the tumour is possible. The main advantage of this treatment is that it affords significant pain relief and restores spinal stability whilst minimizing local recurrence.
Correspondence should be addressed to: Mr N. J. Henderson, BASS, c/o BOA, The Royal College of Surgeons, 35–43 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PE.
