Hypothesis: The purpose of this study was to report the patient-rated outcome measures (PROMs) using the Hand20 questionnaire (Suzuki et al. JBJS 2010) before and after surgery of the benign upper limb tumor. We hypothesized that benign upper limb tumors have a clear indication for surgery according to the PROMs. Methods: This study included 301 consecutive patients with histories of benign bone and soft tissue tumors of the upper limb, who had undergone surgery. There were 130 male and 171 female patients with a mean age of 45 years (range, 11e87 years). The diagnoses included 72 ganglions, 37 vascular tumors, 31 giant cell tumors of tendon sheath (GCTTS), 24 schwannomas, 21 lipomas, 21 enchondromas, 17 glomus tumors, 16 fibromas, 15 exostoses, 12 epidermoid cysts, 6 vascular leiomyomas, 6 granulomas, and 23 others. The tumors were located on the finger in 147 cases, hand in 51 cases, wrist in 61 cases, forearm in 18 cases, elbow in 16 cases, and upper arm and axilla in 8 cases. Tumor size was classified into 3 groups: smaller than 1 cm (45 cases), between 1 and 3 cm (157 cases), and larger than 3 cm (99 cases). We have prospectively assessed PROMs using Hand20 questionnaire before and after surgery. The mean period from surgery to assessment was 21 months (range, 6e78 months). Results: The mean Hand20 and pain scores significantly improved in patients with ganglions, vascular tumors, GCTTS, schwannomas, enchondromas and lipoma. The mean pain scores in patients with glomus tumors improved significantly, but the mean Hand20 scores improved without significance. In patients with fibromas, exostoses, epidermoid cysts, granulomas, and vascular leiomyomas, both the mean Hand 20 and pain scores improvedwithout statistical significance. (Figure 1 and 2).
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