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BACKGROUND: The number of hip replacements is constantly and progressively increasing, resulting in an increase in periprosthetic fractures. The main aim of this study is to analyze costs and outcomes of surgical treatment for those fractures. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective study was performed on periprosthetic proximal femur fracture presented a single-level I trauma center. Medical records were reviewed in terms of demographic data, diagnosis (according to Vancouver classification), type of surgical treatment, hospitalization length and follow-up. Patients were interviewed about number of consultations after discharge, medications and physiotherapy sessions. Clinical outcome was evaluated with WOMAC score at the last follow-up, and patient health status was evaluated with the EQ5D5L score pre-trauma and at the last follow-up. Patients were divided into two groups according to surgical treatment: reduction and internal fixation alone and revision plus fixation. A further group was also considered: patients underwent a Girdlestone procedure. Global costs for each group were calculated. RESULTS: We initially recruited 117 patients, 17 of them were lost at follow-up. Furthermore, 19 patients (19%) died during the follow-up, and 81 of them were therefore included in the study. Mean follow-up was 26.5 months. Mean postoperative WOMAC score was 39.44, and EQ5D5L score was 9.12 for the preoperative period and 12.35 at the last follow-up. A significant worsening of clinical conditions was found comparing the period before fracture to the last follow-up (p < 0.01). Quality of life after surgery resulted to be poor or fair in 40% of the patients at a mean follow-up of 26.5 months. No significant differences between groups were found according to patients' health status. Mean global costs for mayor surgeries were 18,822 Euros; mean costs for fixation alone were 17,298 Euros while for fixation and revision were 20,966 Euros, but no statistically difference was found between these two groups. Mean cost for Girdlestone group was 12,664 Euros. CONCLUSIONS: In proximal femur periprosthetic fractures, either fixation or revision plus fixation presents high costs but patients' postoperative quality of life is poor.

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The national and local need for human tissues to be used in transplants is a high one, and constantly growing. Human, scientific and financial resources involved in guaranteeing safe and high-quality tissues as defined by the national guidelines for musculoskeletal tissue banks are considerable. For this reason we need to find adequate solutions to the problem of guaranteeing sufficient availability of tissues with the lowest cost possible for supply. The Piedmont Region Musculoskeletal Tissue Bank, which is located in an Azienda Ospedaliera, has been organized to guarantee the quality of its tissues via biological validation and scientific-clinical coordination; it makes use of the collaboration of removal centers that send tissues taken from the central bank for certification and identifies several centers for preservation; it collaborates with a bank of national importance for tissue processing. The publication of regulations and tariffs based on cost analysis improves the procedures.

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Soft tissue tumors, involving the vascular bundle, require a particular surgical approach: oncological and vascular surgical techniques must be integrated in order to perform a limb-saving surgery with adequate margins. Thirty-six soft tissue sarcomas of the thigh and popliteal region were treated from June 1999 to September 2002. Nineteen cases involving the vascular bundle were analysed and placed in two groups according to imaging and clinical information: Group A, 14 patients, with tumors close to femoral vessels without adventitial infiltration, and Group B, 5 patients, with vascular infiltration. Group A was treated with vascular blunt dissection performing adventitial excision. Group B was treated with vascular "en-bloc" resection and reconstruction. Imaging and clinical information together with surgical techniques, strategies and complications were analysed in order to plan the surgical approach in neoplastic vascular bundle involvement.

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PURPOSE: Echocolor Power Doppler with contrast medium forms a non-invasive vascular image; the purpose of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness in differentiating benign and malignant tumors in the soft tissues of the limbs. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Echocolor Power Doppler with contrast medium was used to study 80 patients with swelling in the soft tissues of the limbs: there were 54 benign lesions, 22 sarcomas, and 4 aggressive desmoid fibromatoses. RESULTS: Were identified 4 patterns of wash-in and wash-out curves that could be correlated to the histological diagnosis: type I was present in 85% of benign lesions, type III in 91% of malignant lesions and in 3.7% of the benign ones, type II in aggressive fibromatoses, anomalous type in 4 benign lesions and 2 sarcomas; the curve was absent in 2 benign lesions. CONCLUSIONS: Power Doppler Echocolor with contrast medium can become a useful method to be associated with traditional imaging methods in the differential diagnosis of swelling of the soft tissues of the limbs.

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PURPOSE: Evaluation of bone remanagement after treatment by thermoablation of osteoid osteoma (OO) by CT scan. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Nine cases of OO (8 in the limbs, 1 in the pelvis) following biopsy were treated by CT-guided thermoablation. Clinical results, complications, density of tissues treated by CT scan (pre-postop, 6, 12 months) are evaluated. RESULTS: Absence of complications, regression of pain over 2 weeks, resumption of sports activity in 1 month. Bone density after treatment increases but even after 1 year it is much lower than normal levels. CONCLUSIONS: Bone remodeling after thermoablation of OO requires much time, the process is still visible 12 months later by CT scan. CT scan is an adequate method, not only for diagnosis and treatment, but also for follow-up, capable of evaluating in time the changes in density of the site of the lesion, which is useful for a comparison in case of postoperative pain of doubtful origin.

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In 965 patients with high-grade osteosarcoma of the extremities, we investigated the correlation between diagnostic delay and the stage of the tumor at presentation. The mean interval between the onset of first symptoms and the final diagnosis was significantly shorter in patients with metastatic disease than in patients with localized disease at the time of the diagnosis. The difference was due to a late presentation of patients with localized disease to the physician and not to delays in performing radiologic examinations or in referring patients to a specialized hospital for biopsy and treatment. We conclude that in high-grade osteosarcoma of the extremity the shorter interval between onset of symptoms and diagnosis observed in patients with disseminated disease at the time of the diagnosis reflects a more aggressive behavior of tumors that are metastatic at presentation.

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