Analysis of morbidity and mortality in patients with primary bone tumors who underwent sacrectomy: A systematic review

BACKGROUND: Sacrectomy is indicated for the resection of life-threatening tumors in the sacrum area. Several studies have been conducted to investigate important aspects of sacrectomy to help reduce the morbidity and mortality of patients who underwent the procedure. This aim of this systematic review was to highlight the prognoses of patients who underwent sacrectomy for the resection of primary bone tumors by analyzing information related to the intraoperative and perioperative periods of the procedure. METHODOLOGY: Several databases were searched for relevant articles using the keywords “sacrectomy” and “survival” associated with the Boolean operators “or” and “and” ([SACRECTOMY OR SACRECTOM*] AND SURVIVAL). RESULTS: A total of 13 articles were selected for data collection. The studies reported in the articles included a total of 384 patients, 140 of whom underwent partial sacrectomy, whereas 244 underwent total sacral resections. The results of the analysis indicated that the average volume of blood lost during a resection performed using the combined anterior and posterior approaches (average duration, 8.35 h) was 4571.94 mL. Regarding poor outcomes and adverse events in the included studies, 10 patients died in the early postoperative period, whereas four patients had hemorrhagic shock. The most prevalent complications reported were surgical wound infection and sphincter dysfunction. CONCLUSION: The optimal surgical approach for sacrectomy depends on the location of the tumor. The anterior approach, preferably with laparoscopy, is currently widely used to reduce the amount of blood lost during the procedure. Although the most prevalent complications of sacrectomy have a high incidence rate, the procedure has a low mortality rate.