Treatment of pathological fractures of long bones excluding those due to breast cancer

Abstract

Seventy-two pathological fractures associated with tumors other than carcinoma of the breast in the long bones of the extremities of sixty patients were treated over a five-year period at Roswell Park Memorial Institute. Pain was relieved in 91 per cent of the patients treated by internal fixation, in 59 per cent of those treated by irradiation, and in 45 per cent of those treated by other means. Among patients with lower-extremity fractures, 61 per cent of those treated by internal fixation became ambulatory, whereas only 23 per cent of those treated by other methods were able to walk. Internal fixation of these pathological fractures appeared to be the best treatment.