Patient-Specific Finite Element Analysis of Femoral Giant Cell Tumor Reconstructed Using Locking Plate System

Abstract

Giant cell tumor (GCT) is a benign bone tumor that usually involves the end of long bone in young adults. GCT is locally aggressive, weakens the bone and can lead to pathologic fracture [1, 2]. Clinically, GCT is removed and the defect is reconstructed with bone cement, sometimes enhanced with intramedullary pins. However, there was no significant biomechanical advantage to using a cement plus pin construct over cement alone; clinical outcomes of both reconstruction methods were controversial [3–5]. While locking plates were recently adopted for GCT reconstruction, no biomechanics analysis has been performed to indicate its advantage over the cement alone or cement plus pin reconstruction. In this study we developed patient specific finite element (FE) models to compare the mechanical strengths of GCT reconstructed using cement alone and cement plus locking plate.