Clear-cell sarcoma is a very rare tumor, and is almost always associated with tendons or aponeuroses or is metastatic from other organs. Sporadic cases only have been reported involving primarily the bone or extending from soft tissues to surrounding bones. To our knowledge, the ilium has not been previously reported as the primary site for clear cell sarcoma. We report a rare case of Primary clear cell sarcoma involving right ilium region in a 18-year-old boy presented with a painful swelling over right ilium and limp on right lower limb of ten month duration. He was initially suspected having tuberculosis based on clinicoradiological evaluation and diagnosis of primry clear cell sarcoma could be established on histopathology. Patient was treated with partial excision of the ilium, the remaining ilium was fused with sacrum. Stabilization was achieved with a cortical autograft harvested from the right fibula and fixation with a titanium plate. The patient had no local recurrences but the plate holding ilium to sacrum broke and was removed in the subsequent surgery after which he developed Trendelenberg’s gait.
Ossyfying periarticular lipoma is a very rare entity. Lipomas undergo involutional changes like chondrification, calcification and very rarely ossification. These changes result in altered clinical, radiological and histopathological features leading to diagnostic challenge in differentiation from the soft tissue tumor like synovial sarcoma, liposarcoma and rhabdomyosarcoma. We present a series of three cases of ossifying lipomas presenting as soft tissue tumor around the knee, shoulder and hip joints. All the tumors revealed calcification and ossification on plain X-rays and on MRI/CT Scans. Clinico-radiological evaluation lead to a similar diagnostic dilemma in our series and a confirmed diagnosis of ossifying lipoma became possible only after histopathology. All the three tumors were excised completely without any recurrence during last 3 1/2 years of follow-up. We recommend the early imaging by MRI/CT scan with closed core biopsy to exclude the malignant pathology and complete excision of the tumor with early mobilization of the adjacent joint.
The rate of nonunion of shaft of humerus ranges from 0 to 15%. The management of this problem becomes difficult when it is complicated by osteoprosis, bone defects and previous surgeries. We treated 24 such cases. There were sixteen males and 8 females. Age ranged from 28 to 65 years and averaged 46 years. Ten fractures were in the middle third and 14 were at the junction of middle and lower thirds. The average duration of nonunion was 8 months. Eight cases were previously treated with plating, 4 were treated with intramedullary nail and 2 with external fixator. Ten cases were treated with slab or cast. All cases were treated with removal of old metalwork (if any), open reduction, placement of fibula autograft in the medullary canal of humerus, plating and cancellous onlay grafting. The length of the fibula autograft in the humerus exceeded the plate length over each fragment. Anterior approach was used in 22 cases. In 2 cases posterior approach was used because of a previously posterior placed plate. U-slab was given in the postoperative period. It was discarded when there was clinical and radiological evidence of union. Physiotherapy was given to all patients after union. 22 humeri united and 2 failed to unite. 21 patients could carry out their daily activities and return to their profession. There was no postoperative radial nerve palsy. 1 case had fibula donor site pain. The follow-up period was 12 to 26 months and averaged 20 months.
Aneurysmal bone cyst is a rare tumour-like lesion which develops during growth. Our aim was to determine the efficacy of the administration of percutaneous intralesional 3% polidocanol (hydroxypolyaethoxydodecan) as sclerotherapy. Between July 1997 and December 2004 we treated 72 patients (46 males, 26 females) with a histologically-proven diagnosis of aneurysmal bone cyst, at various skeletal sites using this method. The sclerotherapy was performed under fluoroscopic guidance and general anaesthesia or sedation and local anaesthesia. The mean follow-up period was 34 months (26.5 to 80). The patients were evaluated using the Enneking system for functional assessment and all the lesions were radiologically quantified into four grades. The mean age of patients was 15.6 years (3 to 38) and the mean number of injections was three (1 to 5). Ten patients were cured by a single injection. The mean reduction in size of the lesion (radiological healing) was found to be 76.6% (61.9% to 93.2%) with a mean clinical response of 84.5% (73.4% to 100%). Recurrence was seen in two patients (2.8%) within two years of treatment and both were treated successfully by further sclerotherapy. Percutaneous sclerotherapy with polidocanol is a safe alternative to conventional surgery for the treatment of an aneurysmal bone cyst. It can be used at surgically-inaccessible sites and treatment can be performed on an out-patient basis.
In 44 patients with tuberculosis of the foot we identified five radiological patterns of lesions; cystic, rheumatoid, subperiosteal, kissing and spina ventosa. Cystic destruction had the best outcome and rheumatoid the poorest. All the patients were cured after antituberculous treatment for 18 months, and none required surgery.
A medical and engineering study was made of 1074 car accidents involving 2520 vehicle occupants. The injuries they sustained were correlated with details of the crash and with contact points inside the cars. Where possible the forces which were generated in the crash were estimated and related to the injuries. In all, 39 car occupants suffered femoral shaft fracture, with an incidence of 1.7% and 0.8% for front and rear seat occupants respectively. Of these, 31 had associated injuries to other regions of the body; these were the cause of 13 of the 14 deaths in this group. Associated injuries were more severe in car occupants who were not wearing seat belts but the incidence of femoral fracture was not significantly different. The mean velocity change (delta-V) causing femoral fracture was 26 mph (42 km/h) and there was a higher incidence of femoral shaft fracture when delta-V was over 30 mph. Estimates of forces needed to cause fracture were higher than those found in cadaver studies. The time to union of femoral fractures did not correlate with the severity of the crash but was longer (mean 19 weeks) than the average for other femoral fractures.
