Anatomic and surgical complexity make pelvic and sacral bone sarcoma resections challenging. Positive surgical margins are more likely to occur in patients with pelvic and sacral bone sarcomas than in those with extremity sarcomas and are associated with an increased likelihood of local recurrence. Intraoperative navigation techniques have been proposed to improve surgical accuracy in achieving negative margins, but available evidence is limited to experimental (laboratory) studies and small patient series. Only one small historically controlled study is available. Because we have experience with both approaches, we wanted to assess whether navigation improves our ability to achieve negative resection margins.
Are navigated resections for pelvic and sacral primary bone sarcomas better able to achieve adequate surgical margins than nonnavigated resections?
Intraoperative guidance techniques improved our ability to achieve negative bony margins when performing surgical resections in patients with pelvic and sacral primary bone sarcomas. Achieving adequate soft-tissue margins remains a challenge, and these margins do not appear to be influenced by navigation. Larger studies are needed to confirm our results, and longer followup of these patients is needed to determine if the use of navigation will improve survival or the risk of local recurrence.
Level of evidence: Level III, therapeutic study. Copyright remains with the authors and publisher.
Anatomic and surgical complexity make pelvic and sacral bone sarcoma resections challenging. Positive surgical margins are more likely to occur in patients with pelvic and sacral bone sarcomas than in those with extremity sarcomas and are associated with an increased likelihood of local recurrence. Intraoperative navigation techniques have been proposed to improve surgical accuracy in achieving negative margins, but available evidence is limited to experimental (laboratory) studies and small patient series. Only one small historically controlled study is available. Because we have experience with both approaches, we wanted to assess whether navigation improves our ability to achieve negative resection margins.
Are navigated resections for pelvic and sacral primary bone sarcomas better able to achieve adequate surgical margins than nonnavigated resections?
Intraoperative guidance techniques improved our ability to achieve negative bony margins when performing surgical resections in patients with pelvic and sacral primary bone sarcomas. Achieving adequate soft-tissue margins remains a challenge, and these margins do not appear to be influenced by navigation. Larger studies are needed to confirm our results, and longer followup of these patients is needed to determine if the use of navigation will improve survival or the risk of local recurrence.
Level of evidence: Level III, therapeutic study. Copyright remains with the authors and publisher.