After surgical removal of the tumor from the bone, high dose irradiation (20,000 – 30,000 rads) is used to kill all cancerous cells and then the bone is implanted back patient’s body for reconstruction. Such “autograft” bone reconstruction does not have concerns of cross infection, risks of hepatitis or AIDS infections, insufficient source of allograft bones, or not being able to find allograft bone match. Therefore, autograft bone reconstruction is one of the best options in the areas that bone donation is not common. So far only a few cases of such surgery are reported in Belgium, Japan, and Korea.
The success rate of “autograft bone reconstruction surgery” is as good as that of customized artificial joints or allograft bone reconstruction and dose not have concerns about expensive materials and lack of source of the other approaches mentioned above. As a result, autograft bone reconstruction is truly one of best options for bone reconstruction. However, the bone strength of the autograft bone cannot be damaged much, otherwise, fracture may occur easily later on. The steps are as follow:
- Step 1: Remove bone tumor
- Step 2: High dose of irradiation (30,000 rads)
- Step 3: Remove all soft tissues and dead cancerous tissues
- Step 4: Implant the bone back to patient’s body for reconstruction