Reconstruction of the knee extensor mechanism in patients with a malignant bone tumor of the proximal tibia

Abstract

Reconstruction of the knee extensor mechanism after the excision of a malignant bone tumor is often difficult, particularly if the tumor is located in the proximal tibia. We developed a novel method to reconstruct the knee extensor mechanism using autologous fasciae, and subsequently evaluated the efficacy of this method. We examined the studied reconstruction method, range of motion, extension lag, knee extensor strength, and functional evaluation of three patients with a malignant bone tumor in the proximal tibia. All three patients underwent reconstruction of the knee extensor mechanism by our method. All patients experienced satisfactory outcomes with regard to the above-mentioned parameters. The functional evaluation scores in the three patients were 90%, 95%, and 95% (mean, 90%). In this analysis of our recently devised reconstruction method, the follow-up duration was short and only three patients were investigated. However, if appropriate patients are carefully selected for this procedure, long-term outcomes associated with new technique may be better than those associated with other methods of the knee extensor reconstruction.