Giant cell tumors which are typically present with large areas of bone destruction produce particularly difficult therapeutic problems for the orthopaedic surgeon. This is to report on two cases with this tumor in which relatively successful results were obtained by surgical treatment.
One case was a 24-year-old woman who was in the thirty-fourth weeks of pregnancy. She felt pain in the right elbow joint. Radiological and histological examinations with the open biopsy revealed a feature of giant cell tumor occurring in the humerus. Wide resection of the tumor was performed after child birth. As recurrence of tumor was not evident upon radiological examination during the six months period following surgery, we performed Coonrad II total elbow arthroplasty. She regained a pain free elbow with a relatively good range of motion at five months after the operation.
The other case was a 39-year-old man who complained of the right shoulder joint pain without known trauma. Bone radiographs showed a cystic tumor in the humerus head with proximal humeral fracture. The angiogram showed a feature of giant cell tumor occurring in the humeral head. This case was treated by curettage and cryosurgery. After the operation, he was fixed with zero-position cast brace. Bony union was achieved successfully with no recurrence of the tumor six months after the operation.
