Relationship between magnitude of resection, complication, and prosthetic survival after prosthetic knee reconstructions for distal femoral tumors

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Limb-sparing surgery has become the preferred surgical treatment of malignant bone tumors. The objective of this study was to evaluate factors that influence the morbidity and outcome of prosthetic knee replacement after resection of malignant tumors of the distal femur. METHODS: Eighty-two patients who had a resection of malignant tumor of the distal femur and implantation of a segmental knee prosthesis (minimum follow-up, 2 years) were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS: Twenty-nine patients (35%) underwent 32 prosthetic revisions, 6 from perioperative wound complications, 13 from aseptic loosening, and 13 from other complications. The 3-, 5-, and 10-year Kaplan-Meier prosthetic survival rates were 82%, 71%, and 50%, respectively. On univariate analysis, patients who had more than 40% resection of the distal femur (P = 0.010) and those who had all their vasti muscles resected (P = 0.011) had significantly worse prosthetic survivals than the others. On multivariate analysis, resection of more than 40% of the distal femur was a significant negative prognostic factor for prosthetic survival (P = 0.017). Aseptic loosening was the primary cause of late prosthetic failure. Differences in the magnitude of resection influenced prosthetic survivorship more than prosthetic design. CONCLUSIONS: In the distal femoral endoprosthetic replacement, higher short- and long-term complications were found after extensive resections. Aseptic loosening was the primary cause of prosthetic failure.