Malignant distal femur tumors management in children, low cost innovations with affordable care in a tertiary care hospital, a cross sectional study

INTRODUCTION: Malignant musculoskeletal tumors in children are mostly comprised of Osteosarcoma and Ewing's sarcoma and distal femur is the most common site for primary bone tumors. This study examined the surgical management outcomes of pediatric patients (<18 years) presented in our setup with malignant distal femur tumors. METHODOLOGY: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of patients diagnosed with malignant sarcomas of distal femur and younger than 18 years of age who underwent limb salvage surgery during June 2009–June2017. RESULTS: There were 31 pediatric patients who had distal femur malignant tumors and out of them 20 patients were selected who underwent limb salvage as a primary surgery. The mean age (range) of patients was 11.90 (6–17) years. Seventeen had osteosarcoma and three had Ewing's sarcoma. In surgery all patients were offered reconstruction. Post-operative complications were observed in (50%) patients while other 50% patients had no complications. Wound infection, flap necrosis, broken plates with non-union and recurrence of disease were the reported complications. Revision surgery was performed in 10 patients out of 20 patients. CONCLUSION: Salvage was the primary option in our surgery and revision surgery was performed in the cases due to complications. Small sample size was the limitation of the study.