POSTERIOR APPROACH FOR RADICAL EXCISION OF SACRAL CHORDOMA

Sacral chordoma is a rare primary malignant tumour of bone. Operations to excise these tumours are complex, time consuming and involve consi derable blood loss. We describe the use of a posterior approach to exc ise chordomas from the sacrum of five patients without visceral involv ement. This approach is less complex than combined approaches previous ly described. No distal recurrences had occurred at a mean follow-up o f 5 years. One patient developed local recurrence and was successfully treated by wide local excision. Postoperative morbidity was Low with regard to urinary and faecal continence problems, We recommend the use of Mersilene mesh to prevent herniation through the sacral defect.