PARTIAL SACRAL RESECTION AND RECONSTRUCTION WITH BONE-CEMENT - DISCUSSION OF AN OPERATIVE EXPERIENCE

Sacral resection is often the only way for effective palliation of the severe pain in tumors involving sacrum. However the operation hardly seems to be acceptable with the reported operative times, blood losses and complication rates. A case of retrorectal leiomyosarcoma invading sacrum, with severe pain resistant to combined irradiation and chemot herapy is reported. The tumor was removed with resection of the right two thirds of S2, S3 and S4, and the sacrum was reconstructed with bon e cement. Complete relief of the pain was obtained with no postoperati ve complications. It is concluded that incomplete resection of the sac ral vertebrae should be performed for sacral root pain palliation if o ther methods fail. Bone cement reconstruction seems to be a valuable a lternative to muscle flaps in covering sacral defects.