Abstract
With the introduction of effective chemotherapy for patients with osteosarcoma, various limb salvage surgeries have been developed in the last 2 decades.
We treated 2 young patients with Van Nes rotation-plasty for osteosarcoma around the knee joint. The location of the tumor of Case 1 was at the disal part of the left femur, and that of Case 2 was at the proximal part of the left tibia. Resection of the femoral vessels associated with the tumor, and angioplasty were done in both patients. The sciatic nerve was kept intact. They could walk well without crutches at the two-year or one-year follow up. No local recurrent tumor or metastasis was observed.
The most serious problem of this method is the strange appearance of the treated limb. However, they have not suffered psychological problems in accepting the shortened and rotated extremity.
We recommend the rotation-plasty as an alternative reconstruction method after wide resection of malignant bone tumors around the knee joint, especially for young patients with a high level of daily activity, and before the end of long bone growth.
