CORR Insights^®: What are the Functional Results, Complications, and Outcomes of Using a Custom Unipolar Wrist Hemiarthroplasty for Treatment of Grade III Giant Cell Tumors of the Distal Radius?

Excerpt

Giant cell tumors (GCTs) of bone comprise approximately 5% of all primary bone tumors [1] and 20% of benign bone tumors, with higher rates reported in China [8]. The distal radius is a common location for this uncommon tumor, and given its predilection to arise in young adults, Campanacci Grade III (cortical breakthrough with soft-tissue mass) GCTs may cause considerable long-term local morbidity. A wide variety of methods to reconstruct the distal radius after en bloc resection of a GCT have been described, including arthrodesis of the wrist, osteoarticular allograft, nonarthrodesed nonvascularized or vascularized fibula graft, vascularized iliac crest bone graft, centralization of the ulna, and prosthetic arthroplasty, suggesting that a predictably successful solution to this problem does not yet exist [2, 4, 5]. …