Radio Frequency Ablation for the Treatment of Appendicular Skeleton Chondroblastoma: Is It an Excellent Alternative? Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Radio frequency ablation (RFA) is a minimally invasive technique that has become recognized in clinical practice for treating chondroblastoma, although curettage with bone graft is the standard treatment. Chondroblastoma is a locally aggressive cartilaginous bone tumor, representing nearly 5% of benign bone tumors. Chondroblastoma shows a preference toward the epiphysis or apophysis of long bones, but it was also reported in vertebrae and flat bones. The management of chondroblastoma could be challenging due to the risk to injure the epiphyseal plate or difficult location. The aim of this study was to determine if RFA is a suitable alternative to curettage with bone graft for the treatment of chondroblastoma. Moreover, there will be an evaluation of RFA's effectiveness in terms of symptoms relief; we also define the proper size of the lesion to be treated with RFA, and discuss the complications after the procedure, including the recurrence rate. Furthermore, we review the best imaging method to evaluate the therapeutic response of RFA and for the detection of residual disease early after the ablation. A comprehensive PubMed and Google Scholar search followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis 2020 checklist guidelines. Ninety-seven patients were identified after reviewing the available full texts of nine articles. The results of the current review provide further evidence to support the use of RFA as an alternative option to surgery.