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Radiation Oncology • Palliation
When do you recommend prophylactic orthopaedic stablization of a long bone metastasis perceived to have high risk of pathologic fracture?
These situations often arise in patients with a poor prognosis and the recovery time from such a procedure may not be trivial. In what cases would you feel the benefit still outweighs the risks?
Answer from: Radiation Oncologist at Community Practice
The risk of pathologic fracture is dependent on how much weight bearing the site of metastasis bears (lower extremities higher risk than upper extremities), size of the metastasis (>= 2.5 cm in the cortex of the femur is high risk), whether the lesion is lytic versus blastic (lytic is worse), and...
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