CORR Insights®: What Is the Adverse Event Profile After Prophylactic Treatment of Femoral Shaft or Distal Femur Metastases?

摘要

The improving survival of patients with metastatic bone disease translates into increased disease prevalence that has resulted in a rising cost of care. Our goals as physicians should be to not only alleviate the burden on our patients but also to minimize any unnecessary burden on the healthcare system. In the United States, caring for the more than 250,000 patients who have metastatic bone disease comes at an annual cost of USD 12 billion [ ]. Hence, as orthopaedic surgeons, when we consider surgical treatment of these patients, we must do so with an increasing eye on the precise indications for prophylactic fixation as well as the potential morbidity of any surgical intervention. We should strive to only operate prophylactically on patients who truly have impending fractures and on those who are likely to have a better result with prophylactic treatment compared to treating the fracture after the fact.