Abstract
Introduction: Pathological fractures commonly undergo biopsy to establish tissue diagnosis and plan definitive surgical management.
Methods: 129 patients undergoing image-guided needle biopsy of a pathological fracture between 1998 and 2007 were prospectively identified. Imaging was by CT, ultrasound or fluoroscopy. Biopsy was by Jamshedi, Temno or Trucut needle. The outcome measure was ability to make a tissue diagnosis by this method.
Results: The median age at diagnosis was 43 years. 59% were male, 41% female. The four most common sites of pathological fracture were the femur (35%), humerus (28%), tibia (12%) and pelvis (11%).
The five most common histopathological diagnoses were chondrosarcoma (9%), osteosarcoma (9%), meta-static renal carcinoma (8%), giant-cell tumour (6%), lymphoma (5%).
77% of biopsies yielded a tissue diagnosis. The remaining 23% underwent open biopsy, repeat image-guided needle biopsy or were not further investigated.
In the 30 cases (23%) of non-diagnostic biopsies 80% of these lesions had no extra-osseous component to them and the remaining 20% had a very small extra-osseous component.
Discussion: A tissue diagnosis of a pathological fracture can be obtained by primary image-guided needle biopsy in 77% of cases referred to a specialist bone tumour service. The majority (80%) of unsuccessful biopsies were of lesions with little or no extra-osseous component to the lesion.
Correspondence should be addressed to BOOS c/o British Orthopaedic Association, 35-43 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PE, England
